PERTH MUM ESTHER OH'S HEARTBREAK SPARKED A LIFESAVING INVENTION AND WA'S TOP HONOUR
Photo: Unsplash
Every mum knows the helpless feeling of watching a child struggle and not being able to get them the right help fast enough.
For Perth mother Esther Oh, that feeling became the spark for an invention that is now helping patients in some of the most remote corners of Australia, and on Friday night it earned her the title of Western Australia's 2027 Australian of the Year.
Ms Oh was honoured at a ceremony in Perth alongside three other remarkable West Australians, all of whom will now go forward to the national awards in Canberra on 25 January 2027, according to Auspire, the Australia Day Council of WA.
A mother's worst fear
Her story begins with her son.
As ABC News reports, Ms Oh developed her technology after struggling to get help for her teenage son, who became blind after his treatment was delayed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a 2023 interview with Women in Technology WA, the Singapore-born mother of two explained that her son, then 16, had picked up a virus that left permanent damage to his eyesight.
During lockdowns she could not travel to see eye specialists overseas and could only email them images.
She later came to believe that earlier treatment might have saved his vision.
Rather than let that heartbreak define her family, she set out to make sure other parents and patients would not face the same wait.
How Esther Oh brings the specialist to the patient
The result is Agili8, a company she founded in 2020 that makes smart glasses and headsets for frontline health workers.
A nurse or health worker in a remote clinic wears the glasses, and a specialist who could be hundreds of kilometres away sees exactly what they see through an app, and can zoom in, draw on the image and guide them in real time.
As Ms Oh put it to Women in Technology WA, "The frontliner becomes the hands of the experts who could be 500km away."
The system has been used in remote Aboriginal communities, and her award citation describes one patient who "was saved from deadly infection and potential amputation in just 15 minutes", the ABC reports.
Remarkably, the University of Western Australia, where Ms Oh completed a master's degree in law, notes that she pioneered this work while battling an aggressive cancer herself.
Meet WA's other local heroes
Ms Oh was not the only inspiring woman celebrated on the night.
Tina Baldwin, 78, was named WA's Senior Australian of the Year.
She is Lifeline WA's longest-serving volunteer, and she and her husband Daniel were among the service's very first volunteer crisis supporters back in the mid-1980s.
Over more than 40 years she has answered upwards of 33,000 calls from people going through some of the hardest moments of their lives.
Clinical psychologist Phoebe Ho was named WA's Young Australian of the Year.
She works with the Child and Adolescent Health Service, helping young people recover from eating disorders, and her own lived experience of recovery shapes both her clinical work and her research.
Rounding out the honour roll, Adam Desmond, 47, was named WA's Local Hero.
He founded Binar, an Indigenous basketball association that supports young people through sport, education, health, mentoring and a strong sense of cultural identity.
Why stories like this matter
The ABC noted that this year's WA honour roll is shaped by people who have turned deeply personal adversity into something that helps others.
It is a theme many families will relate to.
What makes Ms Oh's story so moving is that she took one of the most painful experiences a parent can have and used it to build something practical, something that could mean another mum in a remote town gets an answer in minutes rather than days.
Whatever happens in Canberra in January, Western Australia already has four very good reasons to feel proud.
If you know someone quietly making a difference in your community, keep an eye on the Australian of the Year Awards website for when nominations open for next year.
