Listen: Simone Leslie shared her husband David's story about donating his kidney to his sister in NSW before being denied a home quarantine exemption, against his doctor's advice

Speaking to Salt 106.5, David’s wife Simone said he had applied for an exemption, before he left Queensland, to cross the border and then return to Queensland after the surgery.

Father-of-three David, 52, donated a kidney to his sister Tina Slattery, who was “at death’s door” on August 27 at Royal North Shore Hospital.

“[Tina] had this disease for about 12 months and it got to a point pretty much where her life was on the line and she needed a kidney transplant. It was touch-and-go there for a while,” David told 7News.

Simone said the family didn’t know if she would even last until David reached Sydney.

“You’ve got to find something to laugh at in all of this but one of the funny things is that he was never actually going to tell anyone about what he was doing – it was just something between him, his sister, our family and God,” Simone told Salt 106.5.

However, the operation was a complete success and David’s doctor wrote to Queensland Health indicating it was vital for his post-op care to occur in home quarantine but, disappointingly, he was denied.

So now David’s plight has become very public, with “people praying all over the world”.

“We have plans and God does other things,” Simone said.

David has received both vaccination doses, has returned a negative COVID test, and has now effectively been quarantined for six weeks – both pre- and post-op.

Simone and her children have agreed to quarantine with David for the full two weeks as the family is seeking an exemption from Queensland Health on compassionate grounds to be reunited, with David’s doctor also writing that home quarantine is also the safest place for him to be right now.

“It will be unsafe for him to be alone in hotel quarantine without support, and without rapid access to medical attention,” David’s kidney doctor wrote in the letter.

Queensland Health told 7News “border controls and quarantine policies are [their] best line of defence to protect… against COVID-19”.