Doctors warned Andrea could die without safe housing, then discharged her to sleep on the streets

The family of a homeless First Nations woman who is sick with septicemia fear she will die without a safe home, but advocates warn it could be years before she reaches the top of the public housing waiting list. Andrea Woodley has been in and out of hospital for weeks with sepsis, triggered by infected blisters on her feet after sleeping rough in inner city Perth. The Noongar, Budimaya and Nyikina woman and her loved ones fear that without a home she is at risk of death. Her mother, Heather Taylor, who lives 2,000km away in Derby in the Western Australian Kimberley region, said she was told her daughter’s sepsis, which has spread to her heart and lungs, could be fatal without proper treatment. Doctors also told Taylor her daughter would need appropriate housing in which to recover. “The doctor called me and said that Andrea had bacterial pneumonia, and the bacteria had gone to her heart, the left chamber, left side of her heart,” Taylor said. “And I said, ‘Oh my God’. And she had septicemia.” Woodley was discharged from Armadale hospital back to the streets. Taylor said she worried her daughter would be unable to keep on top of taking her antibiotics and attendingoutpatient treatment. She also worries she will not be able to access appropriate clothing, socks and shoes to protect her feet. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email “I said: ‘You’ve got to be very, very careful. The doctor said you could die. So I’m telling you to be very careful’,” Taylor said. …