At the end of last year, Sam Weepers began a petition to open the hospital’s cath lab all day and night, as opposed to 9 to 5 on weekdays.
The petition, called ‘‘Provide full 24/7 access to Dunedin Public Hospital Catheterisation Laboratory’’, was started in honour of Mr Weepers’ late wife Sheralyn Tipene-Weepers, a te reo Māori teacher at Bayfield High School, who died two years ago at 48.
Her family believe a delay in admittance to Dunedin Hospital’s cath lab caused damage to Mrs Tipene-Weepers’ heart and contributed to her death.
The petition is accepting support and signatures online until today at 11.59pm.
About 2453 had been collected online, and more than 5000 had been collected by Mr Weepers on the street at weekends.
For years, Mr Weepers has been protesting outside Dunedin Hospital on weekends and speaking to others about what happened to his wife, and more recently, to collect signatures.
‘‘It hasn’t mattered how old, how young, or what political affiliations people hold, I’ve heard it all.’’
The anecdotes of people’s own experiences had also been
eye-opening.
He said there had been very little opposition from the thousands of people he had spoken to.
‘‘Personally, I’m very grateful for two main reasons — for one, Sheralyn was not seen and heard in the health system sufficiently to have been given what she needed, and so I want her to be seen and heard now.
‘‘I know it’s too late for her, but it might help someone else.’’
He said he was proud that more than 7000 people had ‘‘heard her voice’’.
He urged anyone who had not yet signed to do so if they wanted to.
Mr Weepers would be presenting the signed petition to Parliament by handing it to MPs outside Dunedin Hospital on May 25.
Act New Zealand MP Todd Stevenson, Green Party MP Francisco Hernandez, and Labour MPs Rachel Brooking and Ingrid Leary would be there to take the petition to Parliament.
In a previous story, Heath New Zealand Te Whatu Ora told the Otago Daily Times it stood by its decision not to treat Mrs Tipene-Weepers during the weekend.
Southern group director of operations Craig Ashton said HNZ had completed a thorough internal review of the case and was satisfied with the assessment and treatment provided to Mrs Tipene-Weepers.
