Packer, 42, who lives in Orange County, Calif., visited Dover on March 11 to share her story with Delaware representatives who were then considering House Bill 140, which would legalize medical aid in dying, also called physician-assisted suicide. She was there to show them that there is life beyond that dire prognosis and to urge them to vote against passage of the bill.
HB 140 eventually passed the House of Representatives by a 21-17 vote with three legislators absent. It now awaits action in the Senate Executive Committee.
Packer, who has told her story all over the United States, spoke with The Dialog recently.
In 2012, she was diagnosed with scleroderma, an autoimmune disease that causes thickening and hardening of the skin and connective tissues. It can also affect internal organs. She went back and forth between palliative and hospice care, but outlived the three years she was told she had. As one can imagine, hearing that news from a doctor is quite jarring.
“It took me a little while to process what the doctor had told me. It was so fast in the hospital when he told me I was terminal,” she said. Her first thoughts were about her four young children and who would be there for them.
“There’s something that comes over you when it comes to your kids and you might not be there the next time they need somebody,” Packer said. “It was a tough pill to swallow.”
She was then told in 2016 that she wouldn’t live more than another six months. She is long past that, and she tells people in her journeys that doctors base their prognoses based on an average or typical progression of specific diseases.