An Ulverstone family is desperately fundraising for accommodation costs in Hobart after a 25-year-old woman was left fighting for her life following a routine keyhole surgery that went catastrophically wrong.
Olivia Kelly, a singer, model and vintage clothing business owner was admitted to North West Regional Hospital in Burnie on Sunday for keyhole surgery to remove a cyst on her ovary.
During the procedure, her aorta – the main artery in her abdomen – was severed.
Kelly was rushed into emergency surgery to stop internal bleeding that needed eight blood transfusions.
She was then airlifted to the Royal Hobart Hospital, where she underwent another major surgery to repair the damaged artery after losing blood flow from her belly button down.
Surgeons had to cut her open again to relieve pressure and save her limbs, requiring a further four transfusions.
Kelly is now in a medically induced coma on life support in the ICU.
Her sister Amy Cowmeadow has set up a GoFundMe page to help their mother Melainne Kelly and Olivia’s fiancé stay in Hobart while she recovers.
Cowmeadow told Pulse accommodation costs are a major burden.
“Even a bed in a dorm … is more expensive than $76 a night,” she said, referring to the nightly reimbursement their mother can claim through the patient transport scheme.
“[It’s been] horrible,” Cowmeadow said of the ordeal.
“Not a nice thing seeing your sister like that.”
She said the family has been by Kelly’s side, playing her favourite music and holding her hand.
“You just hope that she’d be able to hear us in a way,” she said.
Melainne Kelly said the experience had been “very shocking” and doctors expect her daughter to remain in hospital for at least another 10 days.
“She’s also gonna need … ongoing support,” she said.
Cowmeadow said her sister would likely need physiotherapy and faces lifelong scarring.
“We don’t even know what she’s gonna be like when she wakes up,” she said.
Kelly appeared on The Voice in 2020 and runs a vintage clothing shop at the Penguin Undercover Market.
The GoFundMe has already raised more than $8,000.
“We’re just so grateful for people,” Cowmeadow said.
