'I just want a life': The 17-year-old Dunedin teen heading overseas for life-saving operation
- Kelly Smith
- Sep 25, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 14
The last time Olivia Adie was able to eat something – and keep it down – was in late 2021.
Fast-forward two years and the Dunedin teen receives her nutrition via a nasogastric tube, and has been absent from school since term two.
The 17-year-old was desperate to live a normal life, but her multiple chronic illnesses, including abdominal vascular compression syndromes (AVCS), which causes serious discomfort whenever she eats or drinks, prevented that.
“I can't go to school, I can't live life basically.’’
Adie and her family are hoping that an overseas life-saving operation, as treatment was not available in New Zealand, would change that.
After seven years of discomfort, a vascular surgeon was recently able to diagnose her AVCS condition, and recommended specialists in Germany.
But that wasn’t cheap, the operation alone costs $100,000, while a request to New Zealand’s High Cost Treatment Pool, via Dunedin Hospital, was not backed by the gastroenterology department.
In a statement, Te Whatu Ora Southern said it would not discuss details of patient care through the media “even if a media waiver is provided by a patient’’.
“We acknowledge that there are in some cases specific treatments for very rare conditions that require overseas treatment.
“In these situations, clinical specialists are able to apply to the High Cost Treatment Pool to support treatment options that enable the patient to access the most appropriate care. These treatments have to be evidence based and supported by clinical experts in Aotearoa.’’
That lack of support left Adie’s family to turn to Givealittle to fund her trip to Germany, which was costed at $140,000. To date they have raised $42,000.
That would go towards her having scans next week, while she was booked for surgery on October 3.
Adie, who had lost 18% of her bodyweight, said she while she was nervous she was excited.
The Queens High School student, who hasn’t been able to attend since term two, had completed Year 12 with excellence and wanted to return to school life.
She hopes to attend university and complete a double degree in law and science, in the field of genetics or biochemistry.
“I was always interested in science, but I think I've definitely become more interested in the genetic side of it.’’
But until then she needed to recover her health.
Adie said she spends most of her life ‘’asleep and then when I do get up, I am going to a hospital appointment every day or going to get IV fluids, which is the only thing I'm really surviving on right now’’.
“Basic life is really, really hard.”
Her conditions, which include Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, Functional Neurological disorder and hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, meant she can't do many things others take for granted, including socialising, sharing a meal, or playing sport.
Adie said she remained grateful for the support of her friend, family and her church.
“I just want a life.’’
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