Family: Mother dies after power company shuts off power to home

[ZeoBandit]

Family: Mother dies after power cut stops oxygen machine
POSTED: 9:06 a.m. EDT, May 30, 2007
Story Highlights
• Folole Muliaga, 44, of New Zealand, needed an electric oxygen pump to breathe
• She died two hours after energy company cut power because of unpaid bill
• Schoolteacher with four children ill, fell behind in payments
• Police investigating Mercury Energy; manager says company devastated

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A 44-year-old woman who needed an electric oxygen pump to breathe died after an energy company cut the power to her home because of a $122 unpaid bill, her family claimed Wednesday.

Police said they had launched an investigation into Folole Muliaga's death, which happened within two hours of state-owned company Mercury Energy cutting power to her house Tuesday.

Mercury Energy's general manager, James Moulder, said the company was devastated by the woman's death and was conducting its own investigation to determine what happened.

Muliaga, a schoolteacher with four children between the ages of 5 and 20, had been off work since February with an illness and had fallen behind in her payments to Mercury, said Brenden Sheehan, a relative who provided a copy of the bill.

Relative says family warned company rep she needed machine
Six days before a Mercury Energy representative arrived Tuesday at the house to disconnect the electricity, she was $122 in arrears.

Sheehan said both Muliaga and her son told the technician she was dependent on the oxygen machine to stay alive and invited him into the house to see it. "Then he cut the power off," Sheehan told The Associated Press.

Muliaga began having difficulty breathing, became faint and then collapsed, he said. Paramedics were unable to revive her, and she was pronounced dead within two hours of the power being cut.

Spokesman says Mercury Energy 'simply unaware' of situation
Moulder expressed his "deep condolences" to the family, and said the company was checking reports that it had been warned Muliaga needed power for the oxygen machine.

"We were simply unaware that loss of electricity to the household was putting a vulnerable customer at risk," he said.

"More than one" disconnection notice had been sent to Muliaga's address over a six- to seven-week period, he added.

State Owned Enterprises Minister Trevor Mallard said there were reports the family had been warned about the overdue account.

"The correct authority to investigate this and sort out the facts is the police," Mallard said, adding the government would expect "full accountability" if the company was found to be culpable.

[jimmy812]

Wow. What 'shocking' news.


What a fucked up situtation is what I meant to say. If the guy came to the house, saw that the woman needed the power to live, and then shut it off, then that's murder, isn't it? If that's what actually happened, then it's really unbelievable that someone could actually do that.

[sixstring]

You gotta love Corporate America... ...JEEZ. Long live the almighty dollar...

[FORD]

You gotta love Corporate America... ...JEEZ. Long live the almighty dollar...

Well, in this case it was State Owned New Zealand, not Corporate America. But I'm sure there were some deaths caused by the ENRON energy blackouts on the West Coast a few years back.

In either case, this technician who saw the situation and then cut the power anyway, is a murderer. No doubt about that.

[Scotty]

Murderous accusations aside, was there really no one in the family willing to pony up $122 to assist the relative if, in fact, multiple disconnection notices were mailed?

[jetm]

Just a thought - but if it took 2 hours for her to pass away, what was the family doing during this time? Why wait until she passes out to call the paramedics? I would have had emergency services there immediately you would think?

Of course, we don't necessarily know all the details I guess.

[smithjc]

Good ol' power company. They're heartless.

Her poor kids.

[vhrocker]

That is totally fucked up!!!

[Kimmie5150]

That just goes to show how heartless and cruel some people are and all that matters to them is the almighty dollar. Sorry ass bastards!

[LenFromCalifornia]

Wow. What 'shocking' news.


What a fucked up situtation is what I meant to say. If the guy came to the house, saw that the woman needed the power to live, and then shut it off, then that's murder, isn't it? If that's what actually happened, then it's really unbelievable that someone could actually do that.

This may appear at first glance to be a "shocking" injustice, but if you read the articles closely that were printed in New Zealand you'll see that what the family is reporting is not true:

1) The family told the authorities that the woman was on an "oxygen" machine. Here is how the chief medical officer described it:

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."

2) I use the type of machine described by the Medical Officer. It's called a CPAP. No pure oxygen is involved; it simply sucks air in from the room and forces it through a tube into a mask which is worn on the face while sleeping. It's used for a condition called "sleep apnea" in which the air passages are relaxed and close up while sleeping. The CPAP blows pressurized air and assists me while sleeping so that air actually reaches my lungs. It is NOT what one would think of as a ventillator. If so, she would have been in intensive care in a hospital.

3) It isn't worn during the day while awake.

4) If the power should go out at night due to a storm, I simply wake up and breath normally until it comes back on. Or, at least that's what I used to do. I've since purchased a marine battery which can power my CPAP for up to 20 hours without needing to be recharged.

5) The symptoms this family reported sound more like a heart attack or a stroke, unrelated to her being on that machine. I suspect that an autopsy will reveal that her death, which occurred so close to the time the power was cut off, was nothing more than a coincidence.

So there you have it: the family reported it as an "oxygen machine" and the media has taken that and run wild with it.

[chefcraig]

...The symptoms this family reported sound more like a heart attack or a stroke, unrelated to her being on that machine. I suspect that an autopsy will reveal that her death, which occurred so close to the time the power was cut off, was nothing more than a coincidence.

So there you have it: the family reported it as an "oxygen machine" and the media has taken that and run wild with it.

One makes the assumption that the family actually knew the difference between a support device and an "assisting" type, and that there is some evil agenda upon their part. This remains to be proven, as does their own culpability in the woman's death.

Also precisely what else would a spokesman for the health care faction say? "Yes, we cold-heartedly sent the woman home because we had doubts as to her ability to afford the health care we provide" or "Heavens no, we would never turn a person away, as we are totally altruistic."?

Sorry, the situation is far too nebulous at this point to be summed up with a simple "So there you have it". Perhaps in time the truth will be revealed.

[jimmy]

Guess she should have paid her bill.

[Executionor]

Well...I am one of those technicians that disconnect electrical services when payments are not made. When I first started, I always went to the door and let them know that I was going to disconnect them and got all sorts of sob stories, most of them turning out to be blatant lies. I actually got in trouble for letting the customer know what we were doing. The girls uptown deal with this all of the time and know what goes on usually and work with people that are late or behind on their bills, but truth be told, there are a lot of people that simply don't care about paying their bills and I swear pay a late fee every month or a reconnect fee and it is always RIGHT after we disconnect them that they show up with the money. I quit trying to figure it out.

I don't know what the details are in this case at all, just relating to the story a bit. It is a different world out there when you get down to being the one on point having to do the dirty work. It is too bad that someone had to die in this, I hope that never happens to me. I do know that if someone is on welfare, we cannot cut off their water for a certain amount of time.

[muffdiver]

Can I get one of those after a long night of drinkin' and smokin' or does it have to be an emergency...?
I'm gonna look into buying one I think...That way that first smoke in the mornin' will get good and deep into the lungs.....

[willyum]

You gotta love Corporate America... ...JEEZ. Long live the almighty dollar...

you are joking, right?

you did read the first line in the article, right?

lemme guess. you blame bush?