Forest and Uda

Forest has an intellectual disability, is non-verbal and lives in supported accommodation. He used to work in a nursery and his sister, Uda, said he ‘knew more about plants than anyone’. He had a girlfriend and travelled the world. He had a great life, Uda told the Royal Commission.

Then one day Forest had a stroke.

Forest had some paralysis on his right side but Uda was hopeful this would improve with rehabilitation. After two weeks, however, doctors told Uda that Forest’s movement ‘was as good as it was going to be’ and rehabilitation was pointless. They wanted to transfer him to a nursing home.

Uda was horrified and contacted private and public rehabilitation centres but most wouldn’t accept Forest. Eventually, he was accepted into a specialist neuro rehabilitation centre where he made progress. But then he was transferred to the mainstream part of the centre. Here, doctors pushed for him to be discharged and said ‘he’d never walk, he couldn’t do this, he couldn’t do that’.

Many of the doctors thought Forest had always been in a wheelchair so Uda brought in videos and photos of him to show them what his life had been like before the stroke.

Unable to convince them, she arranged for a specialist doctor, who was a friend, to assess Forest. This doctor told her the brain could rewire and Forest was capable of making a recovery.

Under the pretence of taking Forest out for lunch on weekends, Uda started taking him to physiotherapist appointments. Forest began to improve. He was able to stand and, with her assistance, shuffle into bed.

Then one morning Uda received a call. The nurse told her not to panic but Forest had suffered a mild seizure overnight and had been taken to hospital as a precaution.

When Uda arrived she saw Forest was in pain. He hadn’t passed urine for 24 hours. The doctors at the hospital said there was no evidence of a seizure or stroke and couldn’t understand why Forest had been brought there. He was discharged and taken back to the centre.

But back at the centre that afternoon, Uda knew ‘something was terribly wrong’ and thought Forest was going to die.

Forest was then x-rayed, which revealed that his leg bone had been driven up into his pelvis. The pain would have been excruciating – he had been without pain management for three days.

Doctors at the centre were unwilling to operate and transferred him to the trauma department of a major hospital.

Doctors at the hospital were horrified when they saw Forest’s injury. They decided to operate but soon changed their minds. The injury was worse than suspected and Forest needed a total hip replacement. He would not survive an immediate operation.

Unfortunately, the only place where he could be properly supported while he recovered was the specialist rehabilitation centre where he sustained the injury.

But the centre didn’t want him. The head doctor fought against operating on Forest and wanted him transferred to a nursing home. In his opinion, Forest wouldn’t walk again, the injury should be left alone and the pain managed with medication.

The head doctor tried to intimidate and frighten Uda. He told her, in front of Forest, that Forest would die. Ultimately he threatened to take the matter to the state administrative tribunal.

Uda engaged lawyers and consulted one of the top orthopaedic surgeons in the state. The surgeon consulted colleagues and they examined Forest ‘with a fine tooth comb to make sure he was ready for surgery and wouldn’t die on the table’.

Meanwhile Uda wanted answers about how the injury occurred. She suspected a nurse rolled him too far and he fell from the bed. But the centre had their own scenario – Forest had a major stroke and kicked the footrest on the bed causing the injury. Uda’s experts said this scenario was ludicrous.

The operation did go ahead and was successful.

After rehabilitation Forest was able to go home.

‘He’s up and walking,’ said Uda. ‘All I want for him is a safe healthy life.’