'I held my injured fiancé' as he died because a Triple 0 call didn't get through'.

October 31st 2015. From this date forward nothing would be the same for me.

Prior to this day my fiancé, Mick, and myself had been busy planning our future together. We had moved to Kojonup, a small town in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. We had bought a block and demolished a house ourselves – a tough and dusty experience that only reinforced our relationship. We were determining the final plans for our home together and looking forward to getting out of the house we were renting. Four months beforehand, Mick proposed on a sunny June day atop a granite outcrop overlooking my parents’ farm, and, of course, I had said yes. We had ordered “Save the Date” cards and jumped with joy and excitement as we started making wedding plans. And, unbeknown to us, we had already started the family we were planning.

October 31st 2015 started like many Saturdays. As a veterinarian, I was on call and was off to work. Mick, a plumber, had the day off and decided to visit my parents. When we said goodbye that morning, neither of us could have expected it would be the last words, the last kiss and the last embrace we shared together.

After helping my parents, Mick decided to take his quad bike for a test ride before lunch. When Mick didn’t return, my father went looking for him expecting to find him walking back home because the bike had broken down. Instead Mick was found, collapsed but still conscious, seventy metres from the site of where the bike had crashed.

My father immediately attempted to dial ‘000’ with his mobile phone from the site. Unfortunately the accident had occurred in a mobile phone black spot, there was no mobile coverage and my father could not connect with the ‘000’ network. Instead he was forced to drive home, alerting my mother via UHF radio on the way with the ‘000’ call eventually placed from a landline. My father returned to the accident site and relayed vital information by UHF to my mother and the ‘000’ call operator. This delayed access to medical attention by around 20 minutes. There were further delays when the ambulance arrived and had issues contacting the rescue helicopter.

Mick passed away at the site of the accident. I arrived to hold his hand for his last moments. The day after his funeral, two weeks later, I discovered I was pregnant with our child.

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We will never know whether the delay in accessing medical attention would have meant the difference between life and death for Mick. All I know is that seconds count in an emergency so a delay of 20 – 30 minutes is significant. If mobile coverage was not an issue and there were no mobile phone black spots, Mick could be here today looking forward to the birth of our first child. Our child would have a father in their life – not just memories.

Mick’s death was devastating not just to me, but to his family, friends and the community. For my father, finding Mick and then not being able to immediately make that important ‘000’ phone call, it was a particularly stressful situation. It is traumatic enough coming across an accident without the additional worry of how to access emergency services.

My experience is not an isolated incident. Since Mick’s death my attention has been alerted to many instances of people not being able to access ‘000’ across Australia due to inadequate mobile coverage. In many cases people are lucky. Whilst emergency services are delayed they still survive their ordeal. Sadly others are not so lucky.

There are over 10000 identified mobile phone black spots Australia wide. 264 of these black spots are located in major cities including capital cities. A further 3751 are in inner regional areas, including popular tourist destinations and along major highways and transport routes. My experience could happen not just to people like me living in those areas but anyone travelling in those areas.

Even with recent funding, when those planned mobile phone towers are constructed there will still be 6000 black spots unresolved with no firm plans as to when these gaps might be filled. Current government funding and contributions from telcos needs to be at least doubled to achieve adequate mobile coverage.

Where a mobile phone black spot exists there is no coverage from any mobile provider and you cannot place a call to emergency services using either ‘000’ or ‘112’, an alternative number that is sometimes promoted for use in no coverage areas.

Before Mick’s accident I was unaware you could not dial ‘000’ from a mobile phone black spot. As long as I had a mobile I thought I was safe. There is little awareness about this within the general public – something that that also must change along with current funding arrangements.

Everyone deserves ready access to ‘000’ no matter where they reside or travel – it truly could be the difference between life and death.

Further information about the campaign launched following Mick’s death can be found at my facebook page Triple Zero Call Access for All Australians.