Rachel told 2GB drive host Chris O’Keefe that her mother Joy was admitted to a hospital in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
Rachel lives 10 minutes away from the hospital in Mona Vale and was told by staff if there were any issues, they would call her so she and her family headed home.
But a few hours after leaving, Rachel’s daughter FaceTimed her to let her know there was an Optus phone outage.
Rachel checked her phone to see no calls from the hospital and the worry kicked in.
She tried to call the hospital but her phone didn’t work so she rushed to her mum’s side.
But by the time she arrived, it was too late.
“Mum had passed away,” she told the Nine radio station.
“You can’t get those final moments back.
“We thought everything was fine (then) to come back and find her passed away.”
Rachel called it “disgraceful” that her family couldn’t be contacted due to the Optus outage.
“Once we got there and found mum has passed away they (hospital staff) were saying we tried to call you,” she said.
“Your phone is your life, when your mum is on her last legs or whatever, your mum needs you, I need them to be able to have faith that I can get a phone call about something this precious to me.
“You put so much faith in your phone these days.”
She said there is no compensation Optus can provide that will make up for losing those final moments with her mother.
“We can never, ever get that time back with our mum,” she said.
