Claire Murray, 24 died last week in a Singapore hospital following complications related to her second liver transplant. Her first tax-payer funded transplanted liver was damaged due to her relapsing into heroin addiction.
Her initial appeal for a second transplant had been rejected. Finally The WA government gave her family a $250,000 two-year interest-free loan to pay for the surgery. Claire, a mother-of-two was ineligible for another liver transplant in Australia and had to be shifted to Singapore where a part of her aunt’s liver was transplanted into her body. After she developed complications and was too far gone to be saved the doctors had decided to withdraw life support.
Now after her death WA Premier Colin Barnett said that a repayment of the loan was expected. He said on Wednesday, "That the loan is like any other loan the government may make…The family has not approached the government for any relief from that. It's due in two years' time…We anticipate they'll repay that money."