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On the same day that the Wiggles received a managed isolation space (MIQ), Yvonne Ponting was told there was no emergency location for her dying brother to return home to see their family.
Trev Ponting, 46, was diagnosed with brain tumors in late 2019 and received treatment in Japan, where he lives with his wife, Aiko, and their two children, 3-year-old Mia and 18-month-old Toa.
Ponting left the hospital when the Covid-19 pandemic took over the world and has stayed in Japan to undergo chemotherapy.
Since a tumor reappearance in late 2020 his condition has worsened, affecting his mobility and short-term memory.
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Your doctor estimates that you have months to live.
The family’s request for an emergency location at MIQ was denied Friday morning as it did not fit into the category of “serious health risk.”
Supplied
Trev Ponting cannot make it home to see his family despite dying of brain cancer.
“We have also considered requesting that he return to spend time with the family. Unfortunately, we are also unable to grant this request as it does not meet the criteria for urgent travel to New Zealand, “MIQ’s emergency assignment team wrote to the family.
“We appreciate that this is an incredibly difficult time for the family and that this news can cause distress,” the email read.
An MIQ spokeswoman said there was no guarantee that a person who fit into the emergency categories would receive an assignment.
Supplied / Stuff
Ponting with his wife, Aiko, and their children Mia, left, and Toa.
There are 150 rooms reserved for emergency allocation every fortnight. “This is a last resort option and the threshold is very high,” the spokeswoman said.
Some members of the Ponting family, including Sister Yvonne Ponting and her two parents, live in Christchurch.
Ponting has lived in Japan since 2015, working as a ski instructor.
Yvonne Ponting said that seeing her brother again would be peace for everyone.
“We know at this point that we are going to lose him and that we have his family here and his children here to help support them, that would be it,” he said.
Trev Ponting had expressed to his friends in recent weeks that he wanted to go home, Ponting said.
Joseph Johnson / Stuff
There are 150 managed isolation and quarantine emergency spaces per fortnight. (File photo)
“I can’t even describe how it feels to know that maybe you won’t see your brother again,” she said. “It is absolutely heartbreaking.”
General public spaces at MIQ have been reserved until the end of May.
“Even if we manage to get a solitary confinement run only through public roads in general, he will be dead when he gets his place,” Yvonne Ponting said.
He feared there would be a double risk to the family.
First, that Ponting would not get home to New Zealand in time or that he would return, but would not recognize his family due to worsening brain tumors.
“In a way we want to catch him as soon as possible because he knows who we are right now.”
A letter from Ponting’s neurosurgeon, Yukinori Akiyama, said his prognosis was “several months.”
The letter also states that “he is unable to remember something that happened several minutes ago.”
Trev Ponting is a familiar face on the South Island snowboarding scene and he also established a youth skate park in Methven. When it closed due to earthquake damage in 2011, it raised funds and built another.
