A Te Kūiti grandmother who's had the bottom half of her body amputated left her 'home' of two years today after ACC pulled the funding.
Bev McIndoe, 58, was hoping ACC would fund her room at the Waitomo Lodge for one more year, while her fit-for-purpose house was built. But ACC won't extend the payments and McIndoe moved out on Friday morning.
By 11am she was gone. The hospital bed was moved out, the wardrobe cleared and the fridge emptied.
For two years Room 16 at Waitomo Lodge was McIndoe's home, her sanctuary, but now she's been forced to leave because ACC pulled the funding for it.
"I alternate between feeling sick and thinking I'm having a heart attack," she told Newshub.
McIndoe simply can't afford to pay for the room herself and the room next door for her carer.
"The good thing about this situation is the carer was right next door and they could come in during the night and turn me, so I don't get pressure sores, that's been great," she said.
McIndoe moved there in December 2021 after radical hemicorporectomy surgery, to amputate the lower half of her body, following complications and infections after a motorbike accident.
She found out only last week that funding would be stopped on Thursday night and feared being homeless.
"[ACC] just don't care. I said I'll live under a bridge, and she [case worker] is like 'do what you want'," McIndoe said.
ACC told Newshub they won't continue to pay for the motel, and that they sent an email to McIndoe back in December. ACC added they'd had trouble communicating with McIndoe about her accommodation for two years.
McIndoe denies this.
"I've gone through all mail, I've gone through everything, nothing there," she said.
She's now moved into a small home nearby - thanks to a friend - and a wheelchair ramp was quickly built there on Friday.
"The power wasn't on in the house I'm going to, there's been all sorts of hold-ups, one after the other all morning, hopefully by tonight we will be in and okay," McIndoe said.
ACC lawyer John Miller said the situation is a disgrace and ACC needs to keep paying.
"Well, it's shocking," he said. "I saw it on the TV, and I was appalled with ACC doing this. They have considerable resources - about $50 billion in the bank - and surely they could continue this and keep this woman in these circumstances for a bit longer."
He said McIndoe should keep fighting and file a review.
Newshub requested an interview with the ACC Minister but was referred to the Associate ACC Minister Melissa Lee. Newshub was then told Lee's travelling. So, we asked the Prime Minister for his thoughts.
"Look I don't know the details of that circumstance," Christopher Luxon told Newshub. "But I'm happy to look into and I'm sure if you direct it to the minister I'm sure they will have a response to that, as well as ACC themselves".
For now, that doesn't help McIndoe.
"Just the way it has ended, it like c'mon, it was like they were finding an excuse not to pay," she said.
And with that, McIndoe moved out, in her modified wheelchair and with a heavy heart.
