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00:03Good evening and welcome to 60 Minutes. I'm Tara Brunn. All her life, Suzanne Rees was
00:09driven by a wanderlust that took her to far-flung parts of the world. But it was what should have
00:15been the safest of holidays, close to home, that ended the experienced traveller's life
00:20prematurely. In October last year, the much-loved mother and grandmother paid $30,000 for a luxury
00:28cruise around the top of Australia. The Coral Adventurer's first stop was remote Lizard Island
00:34in the Great Barrier Reef. But there, the unthinkable occurred. The ship sailed off without her. Sue
00:42was left behind alone and died of heat exposure. For her grieving family, how this was ever
00:49allowed to happen is beyond shocking.
00:56We're watching a tragedy unfold, a tragedy that should never have happened. It's just before
01:0310am on the 26th of October last year, and Search and Rescue are scouring Lizard Island in the
01:10Great Barrier Reef, desperately looking for Suzanne Rees. At this point, the 81-year-old has been
01:18missing from her cruise ship for almost 24 hours. As you'll see, this is a scandal that beggars belief.
01:26The ship sailed off without Sue, unaware she had not returned from an organised hike.
01:33Watching on from her yacht, Tracey Ayres was recording the search on her phone.
01:39The gravity of it hit me, and then I was just hopeful they would find this person straight away.
01:45They do find Sue quickly that morning, but heart-wrenchingly, it's too late. It's unclear
01:52exactly when, but abandoned and all alone, Sue died of heat stroke. And her rescue is now
02:01a recovery mission. To record it like that...
02:05Yeah, it was, it was very sad. Yeah. Yeah, sorry. I just, it was awful, because I, yeah, sorry.
02:16It was tragic. It was tragic knowing that that was somebody's family member up there.
02:21Sorry, it got a bit emotional there, because I keep thinking of her lying there. Sorry.
02:27Her photos tell the story. All her life, Sue followed her adventurous streak,
02:33travelling the far corners of the world. But at 81, the former accountant was also careful.
02:40An experienced member of a bushwalking club, Sue had a medical checkup before the cruise,
02:46and was given a clean bill of health.
02:49She was fit. She was healthy. She was tough and strong. Absolutely. My mum was capable. She walked
02:56all the time. And I think what should have happened, if it was, the conditions were unacceptable,
03:06the walk should have been cancelled in the first place. Somebody needed to make that decision
03:11and say, too hot. We're not doing the walk. I'm not sure why... The brutal truth is Sue's daughter,
03:20Kate Rees, and son-in-law Andrew Cowey know next to nothing about what happened to Sue. Their last
03:27contact with her was as she arrived at the first stop on her Coral Adventurer cruise. She sent me a
03:35text
03:35that morning with a photo of the deck saying, arrived at Lizard Island, going for a hike and then afternoon
03:45swim.
03:46And that was the last time I heard from her. That was on the 25th of October last year,
03:53and the couple was happy to hear the $30,000 luxury cruise from Cairns up around the Top End
04:00and all the way to Perth was underway. It sounded fantastic to be able to explore parts of the
04:07country in its surrounds that most of us would never get to see. Did you feel like she was in
04:12good
04:12hands when you farewelled her? Absolutely. We had no reason to think that this wouldn't be
04:20the most amazing experience. We had no reason to think anything bad would happen.
04:37It's the dream destination of so many travellers, especially those aboard small adventure cruise
04:46ships. On that day back in October, Sue came ashore with a small group of fellow passengers for a 4k
04:54guided hike. But as you'll see, what followed was a series of terrible failures with fatal consequences.
05:04Sue was let down by those who should have known better. A cruise company catering to retirees,
05:11ultimately owned by one of our most trusted companies, NRMA. But neither is willing to tell
05:17the family how they lost Sue. In fact, quite heartlessly, they've neglected to share any of
05:24the circumstances around Sue's death. How does that happen, do you think? How do you leave a passenger
05:30behind? That's our question. And that's the question that we've asked the company,
05:46The hike on Lizard Island is no walk in the park. And it is not for the faint-hearted, is
05:54it? It's not.
05:57It's pretty tough. Right from the start, it's incredibly challenging. But people do it to enjoy
06:07the spectacular views once they reach the top. I just don't know where to get a grip on this.
06:15And I can't imagine retirees, no disrespect for retirees, but I just don't know how they do it.
06:23Well, your guess is as good as mine. Guiding me through is Fern Trent.
06:29I mean, you should radio it in straight away. She's a marine biologist who worked on the coral
06:34adventurer for a brief time, helping on treks like this. I'm not even sure where this, this is not a
06:40path. It's just a bunch of rocks. It's a bunch of rocks. We have a red triangle. And if you're
06:47not
06:47looking where you're going, you could miss that triangle, for sure. Sue's organised a group hike to the
06:52summit of the Cook's Look track started mid-morning when it was already 30 degrees, while the heat
06:59radiating from the rocks was closer to a baking 50 degrees. If I can take you back, tell me what
07:06you
07:07understand happened that day on the hike. It was a person on the hike mentioned that my mum was feeling
07:14unwell or not too good, I think were the words. And apparently she was told to go back down to
07:22the boat.
07:23It's believed Sue tried to return to the beach alone. Incomprehensibly, none of the guides thought to
07:30alert staff on the beach, Sue was heading down to them. And appallingly, no one noticed she didn't make it.
07:39Was it common practice when you worked for this company to send people who complained of feeling
07:44unwell down to the beach by themselves?
07:47By themselves? Never. No. No. If someone was feeling unwell, you would radio in, but they needed
07:54assistance. And you'd wait for assistance to come, and you wouldn't leave them.
08:01What do you make of that?
08:02Yeah, I mean, it's a hard trek for anyone of any age. And for an 81-year-old to be
08:08turned away by herself halfway up, I think it's crazy.
08:15Just two days before Sue's fateful trek, yachty Tracey Aris made the same hike.
08:21It can be quite horrendous, the heat at times. Only she left her boat at the break of dawn to
08:27start
08:28the walk early, hours ahead of when Sue's group started their climb.
08:34And we left at seven in the morning, and we planned to be off the mountain by,
08:39or off the hike by 10, 10.30 at the latest, because of the heat in the middle of the
08:43day.
08:43How did you find the walk? Oh, it's going to be challenging in parts.
08:48But having made it to the top, she understands why it's a drawcard for tourists.
08:54It was a beautiful walk. Stunning views. And if you're a walker, like Sue was,
09:00it would be an irresistible walk for a walker. You'd have to do it.
09:05What happened to Sue up here is outrageous. Somehow, after telling the group she was feeling unwell,
09:12and being directed back down to the beach on her own, she fell off everyone's radar. We can only
09:18assume that in the heat of the day, Sue became disoriented, ending up just 50 metres from the
09:25walking track. The same path the rest of the group would have taken to get off the mountain,
09:29unaware Sue was so close by. I don't know how long she laid
09:36undiscovered by the track. Quite some time. So she may well have been alive for a long time there.
09:41I don't know. But certainly going back unescorted, I think, was the start of the deck of cards,
09:49was right there. A Queensland marine search and rescue veteran of 30 plus years,
09:55Peter Graham is angry. Sue wasn't given even the most basic level of care. No help when she needed it
10:03most. To have her on her own, feeling unwell, it should have stopped right there.
10:10You know, the heat, her age, the location, the danger.
10:16Forgivable or unforgivable? I don't know if I could forgive.
10:21Nobody wants to die on their own. No stage should she have been on her own.
10:31The visit to Lizard Island was always meant to be a short day trip, so by early afternoon,
10:36the hikers had been taken back to the ship by tender. With the beach cleared at 3.35pm,
10:43the coral adventurer set sail. As you'll see, it took the crew a staggering five hours before they
10:49realised they'd left Sue behind. It is your worst nightmare. I think jaws would have dropped.
11:08On the 25th of October last year, Lizard Island, off the coast of far north Queensland,
11:15was the unlikely epicentre of a tragedy brought about by a series of unthinkable failures from the
11:22crew of a luxury cruise liner owned by one of Australia's most trusted companies, NRMA.
11:30The cruise ship, the coral adventurer, left the island unaware 81-year-old passenger
11:37Suzanne Rees, was not on board. She had taken part in the ship's guided group hike on the island,
11:44but no one noticed she hadn't returned, and the coral adventurer merrily sailed for 50 nautical miles
11:51before the crew finally realised they'd left Sue behind. What do you think the reaction would have
11:58been aboard the ship when it was discovered Sue was missing? I think jaws would have dropped.
12:04You know, it's your worst nightmare. It is your worst nightmare.
12:12Training staff on cruise ships is still a really important part.
12:16A hundred percent. A hundred percent.
12:18After a lifetime on boats, Peter Graham is now a marine search and rescue volunteer.
12:23But losing somebody on a land tour is difficult to fathom when it's a guided experience.
12:33Have you ever come across it before?
12:35Never. I've never...
12:37For much of his career, Peter trained crew staff on safety protocols.
12:43101. Make sure you do a head count of your passengers.
12:49It doesn't matter what your activity was during the day. It's check off and check on.
12:54And we don't go until we establish why they haven't checked on. Where are they? Contact them,
12:59ring them, find them. But that clearly didn't happen in this case.
13:03No. No, they assumed she was on board.
13:08I've got to be quite fit to...
13:10Fern Trent worked for a short time on the coral adventurer as one of the trek guides,
13:15and was very aware of the safety protocols she was meant to follow.
13:20Yeah, so my job during the walking tours was to be at the back with a radio.
13:25She says the guides on the day had an even greater responsibility to check on Sue
13:30after she'd complained of feeling unwell, and was directed to return to the beach on her own.
13:36You should radio it in straight away. If they are sick, if she's dehydrated,
13:41whatever the problem is, you let someone know.
13:45During Fern's time, it was mandatory practice to have passengers manually sign on and off the ship.
13:52It's shocking that you'd leave someone by themselves to make their own way down a hill.
13:57It's shocking that you wouldn't radio it in. And I think what's most shocking is that you'd miss the headcount.
14:03Sail away whilst Sue was stuck here. Yeah.
14:08I mean, there is a possibility that she saw that ship sail away.
14:11Can you imagine that terror? Yeah, the terror, the confusion. It's beyond belief.
14:23Global marine tracking shows the coral adventurer was under steam for five hours
14:28before making the shock discovery Sue was not on board, finally turning back just after 8.30pm.
14:37That's the golden hours that are lost there. While the vessel steamed off
14:41in the other direction. At 10.30pm, two hours into their return journey,
14:45they sent a small search party ahead. You can see that pause momentarily.
14:50Would have been just long enough to get the tender and the crew away
14:53and get down to the island as fast as possible and see what the situation is there.
14:57A rescue chopper from Cairns was also dispatched.
15:01Everything looks the way you should do it here, but it's all a bit late.
15:04Yes, yes, yes. It's just unfortunate they went that long and that far. Her time frame for survival
15:13at that spot where she laid would be critical.
15:19In Sydney, Sue Rees's daughter Kate and son-in-law Andrew Cowey were unaware of the desperate search
15:26until they got the dreaded late-night knock on the door.
15:30So we were working at 2.30 in the morning by New South Wales Police
15:35asking if Suzanne Rees was in the house, if this was the house of Suzanne Rees.
15:42And Andrew and I turned to each other and said, well, she lives here,
15:46but she's on board a boat off the Coral Coast in Queensland.
15:51And this notion, your mother's away on a cruise
15:55and now you're being told by police that she's a missing person?
15:59Yeah, it just didn't make any sense.
16:03Because surely the boat wouldn't have left without her.
16:08Like, how does that even happen?
16:12Back at Lizard Island, on board her yacht,
16:16Tracey Aris witnessed the tender with the forward search party arrive.
16:21They came into the bay in darkness and then we watched them go ashore.
16:25There were seven people, I think, got off, or seven torches anyway.
16:28I could see seven torches going up the track.
16:32And we could hear them calling for somebody
16:34as they were clearly concerned and worried.
16:40The cruise ship arrived back at Lizard Island just before 3.30am.
16:44But at that time, the search for Sue was called off to be resumed at daybreak.
16:50With no news, as you might imagine, it was an unbearably long night for Kate and Andrew.
16:57We weren't going back to sleep.
16:59We had cups of tea and talked about how it's not a large island.
17:05It's probably possible they'll find her at first light, you know.
17:08She'll be sitting on a rock probably pretty...
17:10Annoyed.
17:11...opinionated about the situation.
17:13Yeah, but, you know, we were hopeful.
17:16I certainly was hopeful.
17:19But then the search and rescue officers pointed out how hot it had been and how hot it was again
17:27and did start to guide us towards dealing with the possibility that something worse had happened.
17:39When did the search step up again?
17:42Pretty much first light, we could hear chatter and boats coming in and dropping people at the beach.
17:46And then the red helicopter arrived at around 10 o'clock.
17:50And it went straight to the plateau and it hovered and then went straight back to the airstrip.
17:55And that told me that that's possibly where the person may be.
17:59So that's not far into the hike or not far from the end of the hike, whichever way you look
18:06at it.
18:07Tracey's photos show where Sue's body was found.
18:10Her close proximity to the beach, where help could have been on hand,
18:15amplified how unnecessary and sad her death was.
18:21Yeah, which is incredibly tragic to think about.
18:24I mean, she is so far from help, but so close.
18:27So close, so close.
18:29So this is the summit walk.
18:31She would have been about here.
18:33So literally just off the beach here.
18:37Of course, daylight exposed Sue's whereabouts and the unwelcome news of her death,
18:43shared over the phone with Kate by a Queensland police officer.
18:47And he said, we found your mother and she is deceased.
18:52He said the helicopter had found her.
18:54And I asked him, how could they tell from the helicopter?
18:59Are you sure that she has died?
19:02And he said, yes, she's changed colour.
19:09So that was pretty graphic to hear that.
19:13Could you fathom what you were hearing?
19:19I think once I understood the conditions and when they passed the information on about the state of her body,
19:29I think it became very real at that point.
19:35If losing their mum in such unfathomable circumstances wasn't horrific enough,
19:41what has happened since is beyond reason.
19:44As you'll see, despite their pleas for answers, six months on, the family is still begging to know
19:50from the owner of the cruise company, NRMA, what really happened to their beloved Sue.
20:05Well, your mum looks like a happy traveller.
20:07Yeah, she loved travelling.
20:09Six months on, Kate is still in shock over the death of her 81-year-old mother, Suzanne Rees,
20:15who last year was left behind on far north Queensland's Lizard Island as her cruise ship,
20:22the Coral Adventurer, sailed off into the distance.
20:26And she'd just got started.
20:28That was her first stop and, yeah, that kind of hurts my heart a bit because it's,
20:39she didn't get to do the things that she really wanted to do.
20:42As part of the cruise, Sue had been on a guided walk.
20:48So, this was her, this was her bag that she took on the day, it was a day trip bag.
20:56Have you been...
20:56Adding to Kate's distress, it's only recently her mother's backpack and phone have been returned,
21:02some four months since the unthinkable oversight that led to Sue's death.
21:08As to what is on this, I don't know.
21:17But we believe her body was in a very bad way.
21:21That must be very disturbing for you.
21:25The trauma of losing Sue is one thing.
21:29The frustration and anger Kate and her husband Andrew Cowie feel over how they've been treated by
21:35the cruise company and its owner NRMA only magnifies their loss.
21:41We had one contact from the company on Sunday, six hours after she was discovered.
21:48And then we didn't hear anything for two days.
21:51And then we had a phone call from the CEO of the cruise company saying that he'd been away traveling.
21:57And then we did get contact from NRMA.
22:02But by then, I felt like we were at a loose end that needed to be tidied up.
22:10Information has been scarce from day one.
22:15It's unbelievable, but the company has not confirmed with Kate and Andrew
22:19even the most basic details of how this catastrophe occurred.
22:25When did they realize your mum was missing?
22:28Again, they haven't told us.
22:30We don't know.
22:31Reports were that she was obviously missing at dinner.
22:36And that's when they realized.
22:39For a company built on risk management and safety,
22:43NRMA seemed oddly underprepared and unwilling to deal with Sue's family.
22:49Leaving them, like the rest of us, to be updated only by media reports.
22:55It's also good that in the paper they mentioned that they would be refunding everyone's passage.
23:01But they didn't refund Sue's.
23:05I had to ask for them to refund that money for the trip that she didn't actually get to go
23:13on.
23:14What do you think of that?
23:15I was pretty horrified that I had to ask.
23:20It's that kind of re-injuring where it's like ripping the bandaid back off again.
23:29One of the hardest things to read in those early days was widespread reporting that
23:34Sue had been left behind because she failed to board.
23:41Which is a proper term meaning that Kate's mum had chosen not to get back on the ship and that
23:48the ship knew that she had left her behind.
23:50Which was patently inaccurate.
23:53It certainly made it sound like it wasn't the company's fault.
24:01The fact that there's this constant narrative that she failed to board, which from a cruising perspective is
24:08a fault of the passenger making an election not to board, versus the fact that she was left off board,
24:14is two very different things.
24:16Adam Koutry is a commercial disputes lawyer helping Sue's family get answers to what seems a monumental act of negligence.
24:27When you heard of this case, what was your reaction?
24:32Shock, sadness for the family.
24:34From a legal perspective it's difficult to know what happened and it's difficult to know how it happened.
24:39But an indisputable fact surely is that Sue did not make the decision to be left behind.
24:48I agree. Absolutely indisputable.
24:51We approached NRMA for an interview which they declined, providing this statement instead from their cruise company, Coral Expeditions.
25:01In it, they admit to safety failures on the day and say since Sue's death,
25:07they've introduced additional safety systems and procedures.
25:14Sue was a really very private person and she would have hated to be in the centre of anything like
25:22this.
25:23The critical question remains, how in this day and age could such negligence occur?
25:29Waiting for the results of an investigation and a potential inquest,
25:34it's an explanation the cruise operators are not yet prepared to give.
25:38But for this grieving family, it's the very least they and their cherished Suzanne Rees deserve.
25:47Do you think that there is a world in which you can meet the expectations of an investigation,
25:54but also help the family understand what happened?
25:56I mean, is there a world where these two things can co-exist?
26:00I mean, there doesn't seem to be any reason not to.
26:02In this instance, it certainly felt like we were
26:08to be managed
26:11to make us be quiet or go away rather than
26:17to be handled as human beings who found themselves in a situation that was not of our making.
26:24And it was not of my mother's making either.
26:29And I think it would be one of the most horrible ways to die.
26:36And that does haunt me.
26:42Through its cruise line, Coral Expeditions, NRMA claims it's offered its full support to the Rees
26:49family and has met all their requests. But Kate and Andrew maintain they've been treated heartlessly
26:56and inadequately. You can read the company's statement on our website.
27:00And a footnote, two months after the death of Suzanne Rees, the coral adventurer was involved
27:07in another serious incident when it struck a reef in Papua, New Guinea. Thankfully,
27:12none of the 80 passengers or 44 crew on board was injured.
27:17Coming up. It is harder to meet people. At a crossroads in life. Deadline ticking time bomb.
27:23They want to be mums. But where are the wannabe dads? Some of them are like little toddlers.
27:28They go, next. Why more young Australian women are freezing their eggs. It's like,
27:36there is hope. That's next on 60 Minutes.
27:43Forget the joy of sex. For an increasing number of young heterosexual women in Australia,
27:49freezing their eggs is the first step to becoming a mum. Fertility experts used to think the key reason
27:56for this was obvious. Having fought the good fight for equal opportunity, women would be able to enjoy
28:03the benefits of successful careers for longer. Now, though, another reason has emerged. And it seems
28:11the blokes are to blame. There just aren't enough good ones out there. Men genuinely committed to lasting
28:19relationships who want to be dads. The result is more and more older and single mothers.
28:29Keeping up with little Eli can be exhausting. But his mum, Naomi, wouldn't have it any other way.
28:37I just feel like he's the most beautiful miracle that I've had in my life.
28:43I don't mind not having a man in my life, but I just want to be a mother. Naomi thought
28:49her life
28:50was on track. But when she found herself single at 33 after a long-term relationship,
28:57family planning took a turn for her. Because when you really feel the pressure of
29:03the biological clock ticking and you feel helpless, you just don't know what to do,
29:11because you really don't want to miss the chance. And when you're in your 30s, it's like very stressful.
29:18Naomi always knew she wanted to be a mum one day. So at 36, she decided to freeze her eggs
29:25and hit pause on her biological clock. They put me to sleep. I woke up and I said,
29:33how many? I had a sticker on my hand. I seen 14. 14 eggs they got up. What sort of
29:39relief did you feel
29:40when you looked down at your hands? Big relief. Yes. It's like, oh, there is hope. What color is this?
29:49Red. But all the hope in the world couldn't find Naomi a partner. By 43,
29:55she gave up searching and decided to push ahead with parenthood on her own. Using her frozen eggs,
30:03she became pregnant on her first round of IVF with donor sperm and gave birth to Eli.
30:10It can be hard at times. Probably the best, the most rewarding, empowering and scary decision that I've ever made.
30:23It's a road Shanice Coomans hopes she won't have to travel, but is prepared to go down if she has
30:30to.
30:30How much, Shanice, do you just want to be a mum? I would really love to be a mum one
30:36day, definitely,
30:37but not at the expense of doing it with someone who's not the right person for me.
30:42Shanice is 30 and single. And as a registered nurse, she's very aware of the stark reality when it
30:50comes to a woman's age and her chances of having a baby. But she's quite the romantic. And like many,
30:58Shanice would prefer for Mr. Right to find her.
31:02I would love to be out on a run, a run club or something. So I just run up behind
31:07me and just be
31:08the perfect... Oh, there you are.
31:12I know. And yeah, that would be ideal, but I guess it's not super realistic.
31:18Why do you think it's taking women longer to find Mr. Right?
31:22So all of my friends that I know work full time. They've got very full social lives as well.
31:29I think it is harder to meet people organically.
31:33Being single in your 30s and struggling to find a life partner is a place more and more young women
31:40are finding themselves. So it's not surprising to see the egg freezing phenomenon now trending on social
31:47media. So I'm 32 and I know I want kids someday. Just not right now. Influencers feeding an industry
31:54worth $5 billion a year globally. In Australia, new figures show demand for the procedure
32:02has increased by more than a third every year since 2009. Nine out of 10 women who froze their eggs
32:10in the past decade were single. And incredibly, almost half of those who returned to use their eggs
32:17were prepared to take on motherhood by themselves.
32:23So there could be about eight, maybe 10 in that ovary.
32:28After two weeks of taking hormone injections, Shanice is having an ultrasound to see if her eggs are
32:34ready to collect. So they're definitely ready to go now for the trigger. I think we'll trigger you
32:40tomorrow night. I always sort of thought if I get to 30 and I am still single, then I would
32:48do it. So
32:50it wasn't really a light bulb moment for me. It was more just a realisation that you can plan your
32:57whole life and things can happen. You know, that's definitely been the experience for me.
33:01I feel a little bit sad for people. You're a beautiful young girl sitting here and you're
33:06thinking about and in essence, a little bit worrying about one day having kids.
33:11It's not coming from a place of fear. It's coming from a place of, I guess, being proactive and
33:19giving myself some choice. Good morning, Tennille.
33:24Shanice is under the care of Dr. Lynn Burmeister, who owns Number One Fertility in Melbourne.
33:30You only have to enter the boudoir chic reception to see just how colourful the world of making mums
33:38has become. Was it a deliberate choice to make it like this?
33:42It was a deliberate choice because I wanted to create an environment where people didn't feel
33:47sick. So when you have fertility issues, you're not sick. So you're healthy people,
33:52but you just can't have babies.
33:55Egg freezing now makes up half of Dr. Lynn's business.
34:02Oh, wow. Space age. So this is home to 20,000 eggs.
34:06Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 20,000 possible babies.
34:12Clearly, business is booming. Every collection costs between $5,000 and $15,000. A huge expense
34:20young women are having to fork out to buy themselves critical time. How many of your friends have
34:26frozen their eggs? I probably have about three or four friends that have frozen their eggs.
34:34I think it's getting more and more as well. If it's $5,000 a go, and you need two or
34:41three,
34:41would you be prepared to pay $15,000? Yeah, I would. Yeah. I would. Yeah. I feel it's worth it.
34:48For all the critics out there that say businesses like yours are cashing in
34:51on women's vulnerability. What do you say to that? Well, I say we're not replacing ourselves.
34:56We're 1.4 per two people. So we're actually becoming extinct. I say that I'm helping the
35:03future of Australia. It's a fine balance, isn't it? Because your business is based on women believing
35:09that when they come into your clinic, they're getting a ticket to motherhood.
35:12Yes. And that's something that we need to be very, very transparent that not all eggs that we collect
35:21will be a baby. Like Dr Burmeister, Dr Dvorah Lieberman is a fertility expert. She runs one of
35:29Sydney's state-of-the-art IVF clinics. Dr Lieberman says she's heard just about every reason why a woman
35:38wants to freeze her eggs. And they're not always what we might think. I think to say that women are
35:44freezing their eggs because they're selfish and want to pursue a career. No, I think we busted that
35:50myth ages ago. The most common reason that women give for freezing their eggs is they haven't found
35:56a partner to be the father of their children. Why do you think it is that people to start meeting
36:03the right person in time? I think that this perpetual adolescence of many men
36:10is challenging. Oftentimes it's the men who are not quite ready to settle down and make a commitment.
36:17And I see that a lot among my egg freezing patients. Naomi Levi knows exactly what Dr Lieberman
36:25is talking about. She tried everything, even dating apps, to find a partner and was left disillusioned.
36:34Some of them are like little toddlers, you know. What do you mean by that?
36:39Yeah, it's not easy to find the right partner. You know, it's a tricky situation and it's not easy
36:44to get it when you're in your 30s. Is it because people can just swipe right or left or whatever
36:49you
36:49swipe? It's disposable. So if you're not what they're looking for at the minute or if you don't
36:55give them what they want, then they go, next, swipe to the left and next, you know. So it's kind
37:01of like
37:01the availability is there. It's all open and exposed and it's all disposable very fast.
37:08But no substance? No depth, no substance, exactly. What did you learn when you started opening up to
37:14your friends about it? That everyone feels the same. I think we're all very aware and we don't want to
37:21be
37:23ever in a situation where, you know, me, myself or my friends are in relationships that aren't right.
37:31So do you think maybe women are being pickier than ever? Maybe, yeah. Yeah, possibly. Why do you think
37:37that is? I guess they just want more for themselves. They want more for their future family.
37:44As well. Perfect. Great. All ready to go? Okay, we're going to bring you into theatre now.
37:52Perfect. Okay. Two days after her ultrasound, Shanice is ready for surgery to harvest her eggs.
37:59Dr. Burmeister is hoping she can get 15. So team, we're about to start. Is everyone ready?
38:05Yes. Thank you. Great.
38:08It's a delicate process. You can see the needle inside the follicle now draining the follicle.
38:15That will hopefully have an egg in it. Trying to capture something so tiny that could have an
38:21everlasting impact on Shanice's future. What are we up to now, Sal? Four so far?
38:34It's all over in 15 minutes. Embryologist Sal Yalotta does an initial count.
38:41How critical is this moment?
38:44Very critical. So we want to get them washed out and cleaned up as quickly as we can.
38:50The process for preparing the eggs is called vitrification. Carefully timed over seven and
38:57a half minutes, the eggs are placed in three different solutions to dehydrate them.
39:03They are then snap frozen in liquid nitrogen. Dr. Lynn, what's the verdict?
39:11Well, we collected 11 eggs and we froze nine. So what's the likelihood of Shanice having a baby
39:18from these eggs? So from nine eggs, she's got about a 40 to 50% chance of having a baby.
39:25I don't feel like that's good odds. No, but she might need to do it again. So Shanice gets 20
39:31eggs,
39:31her rates go up to about 90% chance. Coming up, what happens when your frozen eggs don't work?
39:40IVF is like the wild west of fertility. Not everyone succeeds.
40:00Fit and thriving, Eliza Scott is at the top of her game.
40:05Having carved a successful corporate career, she loves to have a plan. But like many 30-year-old
40:12single women, Eliza's learnt life doesn't always pan out the way we imagine.
40:18So 12 months ago, she started freezing her eggs, becoming part of a growing number of
40:24Australian women buying themselves critical time.
40:29I'm under no illusions that it's a perfect science and that I'm guaranteed a baby at
40:34the end of it.
40:35So far, Eliza has done two collections and has 10 frozen eggs stored away.
40:42But for a procedure that could have cost her up to $30,000, she hasn't paid a cent.
40:49Controversially, the American-based company she works for picked up the bill.
40:54And I saw that there was a fertility budget associated with my role.
40:59Egg freezing isn't something many Australian businesses currently offer female employees.
41:06I thought that it was pretty cool that I worked for a place that wanted to invest in giving
41:12a little bit differently about their family planning.
41:14There's some criticism for that, that, you know, that these companies are delaying women's
41:19fertility because they want them to work more.
41:21For me, that's probably not as applicable because I wasn't in a position where I was
41:24tossing out whether or not to have kids.
41:27It was more giving me the opportunity to, um, to have more choice in the future.
41:34But having more choice doesn't always guarantee success.
41:39Bridget Adams started the process back in 2012 when egg freezing was very new.
41:46She was 39 and was thrilled to bank 11 eggs, but says she was never told that her odds of
41:53having a baby were very low.
41:56I think that there's a lot of sort of slick marketing with egg freezing.
42:00There's a lot of hype.
42:02There's a lot of promises.
42:03You don't have to show the results because no one's coming back to use them yet.
42:07And as the younger women freeze and maybe come back to use them, there's going to be more
42:13women like me, um, who it didn't work for.
42:17When Bridget went back to start IVF at 44, she was given just one shot at becoming pregnant.
42:25My eggs went from 11 eggs to eight defrosted, um, successfully.
42:34And then six fertilized and only one that was going to be, you know, able to be implanted.
42:42Was it viable?
42:43Yes, it was viable.
42:45And I was already looking at, you know, baby carriages online and baby clothes and really
42:50thinking like, I've done it.
42:52Bridget was elated to find out she was finally pregnant, only to be told 48 hours later,
42:59it didn't work.
43:01And you feel like, you know, you failed.
43:03You failed to, to do a thing that seem, seemingly is so natural to so many people.
43:10Assisted reproduction has risks all the way through, especially when human handling is
43:17an integral part of the process.
43:20Fertility expert, Dr. Lynn Burmeister, used to work at Monash IVF, which recently paid
43:27out millions of dollars in compensation after two embryo mix-ups.
43:33I was horrified that happened in Australia.
43:35I thought with our standard of care and all the checks that we have in Australia, that that
43:41could never happen in, in, in our country.
43:44I was completely shocked.
43:46Dr. Burmeister believes corporate-run fertility clinics are cutting costs at the expense of
43:52patient safety.
43:54She claims strict identity checks at Monash IVF weren't being carried out properly, leaving
44:00only one scientist checking patient names, not two.
44:05Do you know whether that, that monitoring part of the process was in place?
44:10It wasn't in place when that mistake was made.
44:13When all else failed for Bridget Adams to conceive with her own eggs, this determined mum never
44:21gave up.
44:21At 46, she used egg and sperm donors to conceive a healthy baby girl.
44:28When she has her little arms around you, Bridget, does it hit differently for you?
44:32I think it does because, you know, what it took to have her and the years of wanting and
44:40the years of sort of dreaming and, and when she's finally here, you know, I, I was so happy
44:48to have her because it was so important to me.
44:52Don't go too fast.
44:53She was the, uh, the precious piece of your puzzle.
44:56So I'm one of the lucky ones, you know, very lucky.
44:59And, um, I never thought I would say that when my own eggs didn't work.
45:05Oh boy.
45:07Eliza Scott and Shanice Coomans feel lucky too, even though they're both still searching for
45:14their happily ever after.
45:16But these proactive young women can take comfort knowing they've both given themselves the best
45:23chance of one day becoming a mum.
45:26I think this has given me the opportunity to not date with the intention of finding someone
45:32necessarily that I need to have kids with, rather than it having this like deadline ticking
45:38time bomb.
45:39Do you feel like the pressure has eased a little bit since you've frozen your eggs?
45:43So I feel good that the eggs are young, so they should be good quality.
45:50There's still, uh, things that we can't control and there's still science that we don't know.
45:55You know, the ball's not in my court anymore.
45:57So I've done my bit and I feel good having done that.
46:00And hopefully you never have to use them.
46:02Hopefully I don't.
46:02Yeah.
46:06And that's our program for tonight.
46:09But before we go, a reminder to catch up on stories you've missed and to check out our
46:1424-7 channel, Head to Nine Now.
46:17On this week's 60 Minutes podcast, Extra Minutes, why safety needed to be the priority for the
46:24cruise ship passengers hiking on Lizard Island.
46:27It was real scrambling.
46:28I felt like a quadruped at times, you know, where you're using your hands and your feet
46:32to, to actually manage to get up Granite Rock faces.
46:36That's Extra Minutes available now on the 60 Minutes Australia YouTube channel and your
46:42favorite podcast apps.
46:43We'll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes.
46:48I'm Dimity Clancy.
46:49Good night.
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