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Woman watched her father die on video call from hotel quarantine

An Adelaide woman has had to watch her dad die from hotel quarantine.

Amanda Bilopavlovic, who was living in Canada, flew back to Australia on August 20 on an $11000 one-way ticket after her dad’s health began to deteriorate, 7News reports.

Ms Bilopavlovic, who is fully vaccinated, flew into Sydney and was placed in quarantine. She said she made calls to SA Health for an exemption but said “everybody told me a different story” about her chances of seeing her dad again.

She flew to Adelaide last Friday but was kept at the airport for four hours before being transported to hotel quarantine for a further two weeks.

Amanda Bilopavlovic is pictured along with her dad.
Amanda Bilopavlovic rushed back from Canada to Adelaide to see her dying dad but never got the chance to say goodbye in person. Source: 7News

Ms Bilopavlovic was told she could see her dad in a sterile corridor but only if she passed a Covid test. She took it at 3pm and her dad died at 3.30pm.

“I managed to hook up onto the WiFi and yeah I saw him take his last breath, he was still breathing but I think he was waiting to hear from me... that was it,” she told 7News.

“I was just praying that he would hold on.”

She was allowed to briefly see his body a few hours later. SA Health told 7News its thoughts are with her and her family after her dad’s death but exemption applications might see significant delays in processing.

More shut borders, more family heartache

Ms Bilopavlovic’s story is just one of many which has seen Covid-19 cause heartbreak through border closures and restrictions.

Border closures between Queensland and NSW saw people on both sides of the border embrace on Sunday – which was Father’s Day – in scenes labelled as “pure insanity”.

In another tragic case, Roz Harris, 68 and her husband Ivor, 75, told Yahoo News Australia they are currently engaged in a battle to see her terminally ill son on the Gold Coast. The pair are currently stuck in Casino, NSW.

"He just wants me to be there," Roz told Yahoo News.

"He could pass and I won’t be there and I promised him I would be there.

"It's hard, I'm a wreck."

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