Heartbreaking reason why Cyril is planning to end his life
A terminally ill man has asked to end his own life after waiting months for help from the federal government.
Cyril Tooze, 86, was approved for the highest level of home care under the government’s MyAgedCare program in January because of his unsurvivable lung and heart diseases.
The Adelaide Hills man was initially given an estimated wait of nine months to get the home care he desperately needed.
Ten months later, Mr Tooze is still waiting as his health continues to deteriorate to the point where he now weighs 42kg.
He is one of more than 70,000 older Australians waiting for aged care at home.
Mr Tooze has now decided that death would be a better course of action than waiting any longer in pain.
He has requested to end his own life with the help of South Australia’s voluntary assisted dying program.
“The health care situation in this country is in crisis,” he said Nine news.
A terminally ill man, Cyril Tooze (pictured), has requested euthanasia after waiting more than ten months for home medical care from the federal government
‘It’s now been ten months and we still haven’t received a package.’
With his only family living in Queensland and no other options for surgery to drain fluid from his lungs, he is desperate to spend his days at home.
Although he was offered help for respite care, he still couldn’t afford it on top of rent.
Mr Tooze eventually received temporary home care help after he went public with his story in the hope the government would take action.
“They need to do something and do something quickly,” Mr. Tooze said.
“People are dying.”
His local independent MP Rebekha Sharkie said it was “shameful” that waiting times for home care had doubled since 2022.
“If this story doesn’t make the government take action, pay attention and make this investment immediately, I don’t know what will,” she said.
‘We expected a waiting period of one to three months, which was long enough. Now it says 15 months on the government website.’
Aged Care Minister Anika Wells told Nine News she could not comment on individual cases
Mr Tooze said he no longer wanted to live in pain while waiting for the Government to provide the care he was given in February. Pictured is MP Rebekha Sharkie
South Australia’s voluntary assisted dying program was introduced in January last year.
Consent may be granted if the applicant has been diagnosed with an incurable, advanced disease from which he or she will die within the next six months and which ’causes suffering that cannot be alleviated’.
Nearly 200 South Australians were approved to access VAD in the first year of the scheme.
VAD is legal in most Australian states.
The Northern Territory will be the only place where VAD will be illegal when the ACT’s scheme starts in November 2025.