Storme
Content Warning: These stories are about violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation and may include references to suicide or self-harming behaviours. They may contain graphic descriptions and strong language and may be distressing. Some narratives may be about First Nations people who have passed away. If you need support, please see Contact & support.
Storme has used a wheelchair since an accident about 15 years ago.
‘From that day onwards, I think I was failed because I was in a wheelchair,’ she told the Royal Commission.
After three years of rehabilitation, Storme was ‘getting sicker and sicker and sicker’ and had to be hospitalised again.
‘They were telling me I was getting sick because of urinary tract infections. I had never had a UTI before my injury,’ Storme said.
For a couple of years, Storme was ‘in and out of hospital being pumped full of the most toxic antibiotics’. Her GP also started to doubt the hospital’s diagnosis.
‘It was two and a half years from the point of getting sick for them to pay attention.’
Finally, doctors found what they thought was a small cyst on Storme’s ovary.
She feels that the hospital and doctors were careless and made ‘smash judgements’ about her because of her brain injury. Storme said that after further tests, a physician came out to the recovery room and announced the results to the world.
‘From 40 metres away he yelled out, “Your cyst, it's this big. It's the size of an orange!” And I was just disgusted and so upset in how he projected that to me. Like, telling me bad news that’s gotten even worse … And he also had a laugh on it. It was a joke to him … I was just mortified.’
Storme was ‘shafted’ to another hospital where medical staff told her she was ‘too old for it to be cancer’.
A month later she was operated on, but not by the surgeon she’d been seeing. ‘Unbeknownst to me, it was his registrar,’ Storme said.
A standard biopsy turned into a major procedure when doctors discovered Storme had ovarian cancer. Storme said the surgery was done with ‘uninformed consent’.
‘They just threw the paper under my nose … didn’t explain anything. They didn't even ask me if I wanted them to save my eggs before that.’
Storme was traumatised by the experience.
‘I will never ever let a man be with me because they totally destroyed my body … I woke up in excruciating pain, worst pain I've ever felt.’
Ahead of a follow-up, she asked her GP to ensure that ‘a female doctor do the internal’. But the same doctor performed the examination.
‘It felt like they raped me all over again. Like, it was just disgusting.’
Storme has had problems with her NDIS plan, which she said is ‘ridiculously’ underfunded. Her long-time service provider ‘was asking for exorbitant amounts of money’ for things she’d ‘never even asked for’.
‘She walked away from me and left me with no money and no plan … I'm trying to hold her accountable.’
The NDIS realised Storme had been ‘in some kind of situation’ and ‘put the money back’. But it gave her a new support coordinator with ‘no qualifications whatsoever’. Now, she’s pinning her hopes on a new support team and a big injection of funds for therapy and equipment.
‘This is the first year I have received equipment out of five years.’
Disclaimer: This is the story of a person who shared their personal experience with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability through a submission or private session. The names in this story are pseudonyms. The person who shared this experience was not a witness and their account is not evidence. They did not take an oath or affirmation before providing the story. Nothing in this story constitutes a finding of the Royal Commission. Any views expressed are those of the person who shared their experience, not of the Royal Commission.