Telstra answers Twitter plea to help hospital bound pensioner watch wife’s funeral by video
A pensioner in his 80s who is too unwell to leave hospital for his wife’s funeral will be able to watch it streamed on video after Telstra responded to an online plea for help from a member of his family.
Lachlan Hibbert-Wells posted the request for help this morning, telling readers of his blog:
“The other night my partner’s grandmother passed away in country New South Wales, Australia.
“Her husband, Doug, has also been on oxygen for emphysema for years, and was actually admitted to hospital during her final stay, where he still remains. It is unlikely he will leave again other than to go to a palliative care facility. Patricia and Doug have been together since they were teenagers, with both now in their 80s, and it was some comfort that they were at least together when Pat passed the other night.
“The funeral will most likely be held this weekend, Saturday, February 20th, and with Doug confined to hospital he will be unable to attend. It saddens me greatly that this would be the end of their story together, but it dawned on me that through technology and harnessing my social networks it doesn’t have to be.
“Essentially my goal is to have Doug at least be able to watch a live feed of the funeral, and preferably to even be able to speak should he wish to.”
The funeral is taking place in Orange while the hospital is in nearby Blayney.
Hibbert-Wells, known in social media circles as Warlach, asked his 3000+ followers on Twitter for help in sourcing two laptops and two Telstra NextG modems.
Within a couple of hours of his post, Telstra tweeted from its Twitter account:
“@Warlach Hi there. I reckon we can come up with a solution for you. Did you have a number I can contact you on to discuss? – Scott”
Warlach, a social media manager for WWF’s Earth Hour project, has updated his blog saying:
“I just got off the phone with Scott from that team who said they’re in the process of sending me two NextG Cards for free to support the streaming side of the equation. This is an amazing result and I want to thank Kristen Boschma, Telstra’s Head of Online Communications and Social Media, and the whole @Telstra team.”
He has also been loaned two MacBook laptops. He added in his update:
“It’s crazy to think this started just a few hours before, and while it’s incredibly soppy, you lovely Internet people never fail to amaze me.”
And he told Mumbrella this evening: “It’s amazing how a whole bunch of people responded to this with a whole lot of help.”
He is still hoping for the loan of an external camera to attach to the laptop at the funeral.
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Well done! 🙂
It’s still a sad story, I hope that there’s an afterlife so these too old lovebirds can be together forever.
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Onya Telstra. Well done.
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Tim, you’ve got to stop talking about me like this, you’ll ruin my hardcore, badarse reputation that all the ladies swoon for. Anyway, given the fact I comment here semi-regularly I guess I can’t ignore a post that so closely concerns me.
The whole thing, from post to Telstra having me on the phone, was honestly just over an hour – in that time I had also already been contacted by others who were willing to help.
Behind the scenes people made calls, emailed and retweeted the original message. There was a massive outpouring of support and initiative. I won’t name names but there were multiple people contacting Telstra as well as people who work inside the telco making sure the message got where it needed to be heard.
I can’t thank everyone enough and I’ll be updating the original post with more info tomorrow, and also I’ll be sure to write a follow up post after the funeral.
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Wow, that’s amazing! Nice to hear these kinds of things are happening 🙂
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Really glad this worked out for Lachlan and fam. 5 years ago with no Twitter and it probably wouldn’t have. If i’d been in Sydney, I would’ve provided 1 of those cameras!
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It’s got to be just a matter of time before a startup comes along to facilitate the streaming of important events in people’s lives. Weddings, funerals, birthdays, baptisms – there are any number of major life events that could be streamed for those who aren’t able to be there.
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Nice work. This is the stuff that makes me proud to work for Telstra.
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This is one of those moments when we get to feel proud of the community we’re building; there have been a spate of Twitter related disasters of late and it’s heartening to remind ourselves that new technologies and online social networks can genuinely be a force for good.
Well done Telstra, and massive respect Lachlan, both for having the courage of your convictions and caring enough to try. Ahem. You badass.
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