NZ Mother dies after power cut to her house

[Saje]

This is sad.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10442627

A woman died after she didn't pay her power bill on time and it got cut off. She was on a respirator. I guess her bill was $122. Not that it was the company's fault. Just sad.

 

[Dreeza]

wow, that is really sad

weird situation it seems...lots of different stories.

I hope the power company isn't held responsible for this...I can't see how this would be their fault.

What if the power went off for some other reason? Doesn't make sense that she wouldn't have backup power or something.....

 

[Denaluvscorgis]

It is very sad Dreeza...but I feel the same as you.

wow, that is really sad

weird situation it seems...lots of different stories.

I hope the power company isn't held responsible for this...I can't see how this would be their fault.

What if the power went off for some other reason? Doesn't make sense that she wouldn't have backup power or something.....

 

[smkie]

I believe it could be the fault of the company. Here there is a part of the form you fill out when you obtain your service that wants to know if anyone in the home is on life supporting equipment. Their policy is different for shut off. So either they don't have that as a part of their original contract and SHOULD or they weren't not notified. I don't believe generators are considered medical equipment and covered by insurance. If she didnt' have the money for the bill, that lets out buying a generator. Being poor sucks.

 

[Saje]

Really? I've never seen that before. Regardless, I don't think it's the responsibility of the company to keep providing electricity for people who can't pay their bills. If they are responsible that means a lot of people could start mooching off the system.

 

[noludoru]

It is very sad Dreeza...but I feel the same as you.

X

that's just so sad..

 

[jess2416]

* The District Health Board said Mrs Muliaga would not have been sent home if she needed the machine to stay alive

* Mrs Muliaga's son said he delayed calling an ambulance at his mother's request

I wouldn't care who said what, if that was my mother, I would have called the ambulance anyway....

-I think there is more to the story that what is being said

 

[Buckshot]

They advertise for it here. "If you cant pay your bill, we will pay it for you!" Its got some really catchy name that makes it sound like they are a caring organization, till you find out who is footing the bill.

 

[ToscasMom]

Yes, I saw that and thought how our power company, which literally gouges its customers, wouldn't have any qualms about doing the same thing. Buckshot we have a program too, basically it's paid by the taxpayer.

 

[Saje]

Oh I think my credit card company offers something like that. Steve had it put on. Pissed me off. I've never heard of it for a utility bill though.

 

[joce]

Every time I volunteer at the clinic people come in trying to get a doc to sign the sheet that says the electric company can't turn off their power-almost 100% of the time its just pure bs reasons like my daughter had asthma ten years ago and may need her machine plugged in even though she is no twenty six and living in Florida

I don't see why they didn't get her help in time. thats not the electric companys fault and I don't think they should have to keep everyones electric on when they don't pay-if there is a valid reason maybe but these people didn't even tell them about it.

to have it stay on without paying the bill they need it signed by a doctor and proof they can't pay etc-not just begging the worker to keep it on. they failed their mom not the power company.

edit***and it sound like the hospital may not have signed the form but given them an oxygen machine that only runs for so many hours-they only wanted her to use it at night. She may have just been worked up about the power being turned off and that caused something to happen.

 

[ToscasMom]

People can easily go completely broke in America due to catastrophic illness. More than fifty percent of our bankruptcies in 2006 were due to illness. This is particularly so for people who cannot afford health insurance and the bill collectors begin to knock, the home gets its liens. I don't know about your other states, but where I am a crappy individual HMO costs nearly $900 per month in premiums. For a family, the premium is far greater. This is out of reach for the average middle class family and I really believe it is highly possible that people are dying because of it. When we speak of water, heat, electricity, these are life giving "products" and they are often controlled by corporations. In the end, a company can determine whether you live or die. I'm not so sure I'm comfortable with that. Where I live it is no longer unusal for someone to get a $450 power bill every month in winter. That can put a chink in anybody's routine who doesn't earn a good sum for money, and it can devastate someone who is ill and not working.

There have to be more details to this than we are aware of, both ways. It is highly possible that the woman AND her family had reached the point where there just plain wasn't any more money to give up to the system and couldn't pluck anymore from the sky. Or...they weren't aware of options. Or they had reached the point where they were no longer thinking straight under the duress of illness. That is also possible. It is also possible that the power company just didn't give a .....

I had a tenant who got a letter from our power company saying that their outdoor meter must have malfunctioned during the winter and the readings seemed lower than the previous year. So they came in and read the meter in the basement. She then got a bill for nearly $1000. She was horrified, there was no way she could pay this bill. The power company conceded that it was their own fault that the meter was not working properly, but since she used the power, she owed them the money. Now. If she didn't pay them, they would turn off her power. A thing like this could easily result in power being cut without regard to the welfare of the people living in the home.

 

[SharkyX]

I don't understand why she wouldn't have an uninteruptable power supply capable of running her respirator for at least a short while...
I can buy one that'll run my comp for half an hour for $70CAD at business depot...

 

[joce]

According to her docs she should have been just fine without the oxygen, so the family honestly probably didn't think anything would happen.

 

[ToscasMom]

According to her docs she should have been just fine without the oxygen, so the family honestly probably didn't think anything would happen.

Ooops, guess they were wrong.

 

[casablanca1]

There are all kinds of legal ways to kill poor people in the United States, and it appears this is true of New Zealand as well. I found the below section of the story interesting:

Counties Manukau Chief Medical Officer Don Mackie said Mrs Muliaga was sent home from Middlemore Hospital earlier this month. She had been admitted with a cardio-respiratory complaint and was discharged with a breathing support device, he said. "We do not expect it to be used 24 hours a day. Most people use them at night, particularly just to support their breathing and to relieve any distress from breathlessness while they are sleeping." Later, he told Radio New Zealand Mrs Muliaga would not have been sent home if she needed the machine to keep her alive. "I feel surprised that this has happened... This is not a ventilator at the intensive care level." The machine just supported someone's ventilation rather than doing all the work for them, he said. "People who are on this are capable of breathing for themselves... That is why we are surprised that she deteriorated and tragically died so soon after the support was withdrawn and we need to understand more about that."

That's classic BS from a doctor. Anyone with heart or respiratory (or both) problems is fragile. You can't live without breathing, after all. The remark about the 'ventilator at the ICU level' is breathtakingly (no pun intended) simplstic. Respiratory health encompasses a greater range than "breathing AOK like a healthy toddler!" and "on a ventilator in the ICU." It's entirely possible that she was discharged with dangerously impaired breathing without actually being unconscious with a ventilator down her throat.

I've seen hospitals and doctors release patients with unresolved cardiac/respiratory problems, and seen those patients nearly die, coming back to the ER in a matter of hours or days. NZ has had an unusually warm May (their autumn) with high humidity. That's the exact weather that stresses and kills people with weak hearts and/or impaired respiratory systems.

 

[Aussie Red]

Well anyone not calling for help when they are in that condition can not hold anyone other then themselves accountable. But as far as the utility company I am by no means their fan either. Here in LV I had bills last summer over $ 800.00 per month. I don't know how they expect seniors or minimum wage earners to pay these. Now here it is May and we are into our hot season where we all need AC and guess what ?? Yep they got a rate hike. I found that really strange that each time we go into the time of year we use a certain utility more they need more money. They claim they built new generating plants two years ago and now need more money to pay fo them. Why now ?? Gas cos. want more for gas when we get a chance to get a vacation . Natural gas cos. wait until it is cold to get their rates up. Well it is going to keep up until the average worker can no longer do anymore and looses their A$$ and then the government can finish their take over. It takes two peoples income to support a home now and it is beginning to go to where that is not enough what do they really want from us ? Getting sick is not an option for me. I just spent $ 5000.00 on hearing aids for my hubby so he can keep his job. A job that has damaged his hearing in the first place and no insurance covers hearing aids. According to the insurance industry they are cosmetic not necessary . Yet DMV will revoke a license for hearing loss and many construction companies will let operators go because of it. . Yes the politicians keep right on working on all the important issues and we keep falling deeper and deeper into the realm of bringing back a debters prison. Ah it is so good now a days.

 

[ToscasMom]

Aussie, I agree with you completely. The winter before last was a "mild" winter so less natural gas was used by people here-- so guess what our power company did? They didn't make their regular record-breaking profit on gas so they raised ELECTRIC rates. Their reason? Right in our faces they said, "It was a mild winter and we didn't sell enough gas". No kidding. And they got away with it. Later, they raised them again. Not far from here is a town that generates municipal electricity. They pulled right away from the power company. They pay a quarter of the price per therm for their electricity. The power company got so upset that somebody pulled this off, they decided to pay off our Public No-Service Commission to agree to allow them to charge an arbitrary "exit" fee set by the power company to any municipality that leaves them. Keyword: arbitrary. In other words, they would make it financially impossible for anyone to generate electricity at a fair price. Gougers, that is what they are. Extortionists, pure and simple. They have in effect made SURE that everyone in their zone will be forced to pay any price they feel like charging. They even got around deregulation. If you decide to get your electricity from a competing company, they charge you a "delivery fee" which ensures that your total bill isn't reduced by a single penny.

I also just bet our congress, their staff, the thieves in our White House and everybody associated with them on the public payroll have full hearing aid coverage on their free health care insurance too. Your husband, who pays his taxes so that these people can enjoy all their benefits, doesn't. And so long as power companies keep sending in the big bucks to political campaigns, along with HMOs and other extortionists, nothing will ever change.

 

[Aussie Red]

No this country is headed for a crash. One by one these greedy giants will fall. But that will happen only after the little guy ( you and me ) have already fallen.It is coming and maybe then we can start our take over and get our country back. I will always have a big supply of bullets.

 

[Aussie Red]

Wonders what would happen if everyone one month sent their power bills back to the company and refused to pay ? And I mean everyone LOL never happen but the thought of them scrambling around is down right hysterical. See people do have the power to bring these greedy giants down but they never will.