Sheralyn Weepers, a te reo Māori teacher at Bayfield High School, died in 2023 on the day she was due to fly to Sydney for a life-saving heart transplant.
She was 48.
Her husband, Sam, said her death came a year after she had to be resuscitated at Dunedin Hospital when she had a heart attack on a Monday morning.
She had been in the hospital over the weekend with heart pain but had not been treated in the catheterisation laboratory (cath lab) because her condition was not considered acute enough to call someone in at the weekend.
Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora has stood by its decision not to treat Mrs Weepers in the cath lab — where treatments such as the insertion of stents and pacemakers are done — that weekend.
The Weepers family, who believe the damage to her heart caused during that incident might have been avoided had she been treated at the cath lab, is now working hard to try to prevent others from having to go through the same thing.
They want Dunedin Hospital to have a fulltime operational lab, instead of being closed at the weekend to all but acute cases.
Mr Weepers now stands outside Dunedin Hospital at the weekends, protesting the weekend closure of the cath lab to everyone not assessed as in need of urgent care.
Just because it’s a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, it shouldn’t matter — it should be open for anyone who needs it," he said on a recent weekend.
Before she passed away, she said to me ... she wanted to make some noise about what happened here," Mr Weepers said.
I’m out here really, to make sure she’s remembered."
He has also started a petition urging the government to fund the Dunedin Hospital to run a fulltime operational cath lab.
She was transferred straight to the cath lab where she received an angiogram and preventive surgery.
Ten years later, on May 13, 2022 — a Friday night — Mrs Weepers went to the Dunedin Hospital at 11pm where she was diagnosed with symptoms of a heart attack", he said.
It was written in her file that Mrs Weepers had Scad, but it was decided the on-call cardiologist at the time would not be called in.
... she needed care, but they would not open the lab, because it was the weekend," Mr Weepers said.
He recalled being told his wife would need to wait until Monday and that she was fourth on the priority list to be seen.
She stayed in hospital but had a heart attack at 2am on Monday, Mr Weepers said.
She was resuscitated, transferred to ICU and later had an angiogram and curative cardiac surgery.
However, her heart suffered irreparable damage" and she was diagnosed with heart failure and had a significant reduction in heart function, Mr Weepers said.
She was deemed too high risk and was declined cardiac surgery in New Zealand.
In May 2023, the couple flew to Adelaide for cardiac surgery; however, when there, doctors advised her she needed a full heart transplant and the plan was changed to fly to Sydney for the surgery as soon as possible.
On May 15, 2023, she was due to fly to Sydney. At 2am she had an unexpected suspected ventricular fibrillation and died despite resuscitation efforts, he said.
Since her death, Mrs Weepers’ family have started Āwhinatia — the Sheralyn Tipene-Weepers Charitable Trust, in order to change the healthcare experience for Māori and other under-represented communities through early intervention, health education, advocacy and systemic change.
Health New Zealand southern group director of operations Craig Ashton said HNZ’s ongoing thoughts were with Mrs Weepers’ whānau and he acknowledged the distress and impact losing a loved one had.
He said HNZ had completed a thorough internal review of the case and was satisfied with the assessment and treatment provided to Mrs Weepers.
We have communicated extensively with the family."
He said the cath lab at Dunedin Hospital was open 24/7, during weekends and after hours.
All patients are clinically assessed and have access to the cath lab for any acute or clinically urgent situations," he said.
