Power cut off, woman dies

[Lias]

When you are lying in a bed paralysed after someone has kicked your head in for shooting off your loud, redneck mouth. Lets hope your power bill is up to date.

Last I checked ranting about immigrants was more grounds for getting into parliament than getting your head kicked in, but if I was ever in a situation where I was dependant on the power like that for my life you can bet your arse that I would A: pay the fucking power bill and B: have a backup generator.

[magicfairy]

[QUOTE=Beemer;1075986]

What's the bet the true story was the guy arrived to cut the power off, cut it off and had left by the time they realised what had happened.

Then someone is lying as it is reported:
"Mr Sheehan said he had told the disconnect agent the woman needed power to survive on her oxygen machine."

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

I will agree with the stress and stuff it may have slipped memory (even the family members... but the power company give you enough warnings to remind you...

Ring the company, you will be suprised how easy they are at help you.They do understand how you can get behind, but for gawds sake don't just sit on it... do something about it it... ring (unless your phone was cut off for the same reason...

However till the full story is out in the open...

What's the bet the true story was the guy arrived to cut the power off, cut it off and had left by the time they realised what had happened. They have no obligation to knock on the door and let them know they are cutting off the power; the people would have received a registered letter or similar the day before advising them it would be happening. They had plenty of chances to organise payment or at least let the power company know what was going on. Kinda hard to raise much sympathy when the family obviously didn't care enough for this woman to ensure her life was not put at risk.

I agree... But I haven't read the full story either...

Either way... pay the bloody bill

[Beemer]

Then someone is lying as it is reported:
"Mr Sheehan said he had told the disconnect agent the woman needed power to survive on her oxygen machine."

Just to set the record straight in your post, it was me and not MD who thinks the guy had been and gone before anyone noticed the power was off.

[Bass]

Whats an oxygen machine anyway? I though it came in a black / white cylinder?? Any why can't we have more of these machines - you know - global warmin and all?

Had a relative with emphysema on one of these for about 7 years before she died.
If it's the same type of gadget, I think it's a molecular sieve type device which supplies air from which some of the nitrogen has been removed, thus enhancing the oxygen content.

[Robbo]

Counties Manukau District Health Board suggests the south Auckland woman who died after Mercury Energy cut off her power should have had time to call an ambulance.

Counties Manukau Chief Medical Officer Don Mackie says 44-year-old Folole Muliaga was sent home from Middlemore Hospital earlier this month. He says she had been admitted with a cardio-respiratory complaint and was discharged with a breathing support device.

"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 thy are sleeping."

Dr Mackie say he would expect people on the breathing support device would have time to seek help if the machine stopped working.

Yep! That's exactly how i heard it too. This was not a life support system, it was only for occassional breathing support. It appears that she or other family members would have had plenty of time to make alternative arrangements when the power was finally disconnected, even after many months of letters and warnings from the power company.
Still a tragic outcome all the same and hopefully lessons can be learnt from this, the first one being not to believe a one sided and melodramatic media report of the story made to sound sensational and secondly to pay your power bill on time or notify the Company who are usually happy to assist you in genuine cases of hardship.

[MisterD]

Yep! That's exactly how i heard it too. This was not a life support system, it was only for occassional breathing support. It appears that she or other family members would have had plenty of time to make alternative arrangements when the power was finally disconnected, even after many months of letters and warnings from the power company.
Still a tragic outcome all the same and hopefully lessons can be learnt from this, the first one being not to believe a one sided and melodramatic media report of the story made to sound sensational and secondly to pay your power bill on time or notify the Company who are usually happy to assist you in genuine cases of hardship.

I've just heard on the radio that if you are issued with one of these concentrator devices then Winz give you an extra electricity allowance to pay for it's electricity consumption...where did that cash get spent instead?

[Grahameeboy]

Like someone said they could have asked to use a neighbours house whilst someone paid the bill.

There were relatives....surely between them the bill could have been paid even if the family could not afford at time.

And of course called for the Ambulance.

Quite possible that Wife was stressed over the disconnection (if she knew about it) and lost consciousness due to stress affecting her breathing.

Find it hard to believe that a Hospital would discharge someone if they could not cope without oxygen for more than a few hours.

Lots of issues here I guess.

[LilSel]

I've just heard on the radio that if you are issued with one of these concentrator devices then Winz give you an extra electricity allowance to pay for it's electricity consumption...where did that cash get spent instead?

For real??...

[avgas]

I bet there is more to this story than the media is letting on.

She was smoking at the time....hehe
not but seriously folks this story does sound like a load of trollop.
Also i find it hard to believe to that they can't afford the power bills for 3 months. espec considering she would have been on acc.
Shit i could afford the power bill when i got $30/week for expenses.

[Bloody Mad Woman (BMW)]

A friend of mine is on oxygen 24/7. She has backup power, also has a very small travelling one. However as a last resort 111.

[Hitcher]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/...ectid=10442627

Slowly the facts leak out...

[magicfairy]

Check out the latest update from Stuff - looks like contractor DID know of the situation, and didn't care or follow procedure, and that they had been trying to pay the bill.

So until the whole story comes out, which it will do when the coroner looks at it, I don't we should lay blame on "immigrants" and make comments like "they had months to pay the bill"

No doubt there will be "an inquiry" and the result will be "a systemic failure in the system, no one person can be blamed, recommendations have been made to improve communications and prevent it hapenning again" "contractor was not given information about how handle this situation and inadequtely trained by the power company" "power company not at fault due to the actions of contractor"

And once again in this wonderful country of ours, with the "no blame" ACC laws no one pays or takes responsibility.

From Stuff News site:
"Having cut the power to a South Auckland home, a Mercury Energy contractor stood in front of Folole Muliaga and, over the shrill alarm of the oxygen machine, told her he was only doing his job"

"Particularly when I look at her power bill and see there have been two payments made in the last month," he said.

"And there is nothing in the bill about disconnection and it was only issued last Wednesday."

[Beemer]

From Stuff News site:
"Having cut the power to a South Auckland home, a Mercury Energy contractor stood in front of Folole Muliaga and, over the shrill alarm of the oxygen machine, told her he was only doing his job"

"Particularly when I look at her power bill and see there have been two payments made in the last month," he said.

"And there is nothing in the bill about disconnection and it was only issued last Wednesday."

And so say the relatives. Considering the contractor would have been fully aware of the consequences if he had taken this action, I'd be ready to place money on the 'facts' being a tad different from what the family is claiming.

The telling thing is the fact it took this woman THREE HOURS to die after the power was cut off. I'm pretty sure that unless she lived in the back blocks (and it doesn't sound like she did), it would take a much shorter time for the ambulance to reach her. Or the family - of which some were obviously home - could have rushed her there or taken her to a neighbour's.

Some people have varying priorities and I'm afraid that if my life depended on a constant power supply, I'd pay my bloody power bill!

[terbang]

Jeez Lias I just Googled yer signature:

Liberalism is an essentially infantile, submissive world view. It is the world view of men who do not have the moral toughness, the spiritual strength to stand up and do single combat with life, who cannot adjust to the reality that the world is not a huge, pink-and-blue, padded nursery in which the lions lie down with the lambs and everyone lives happily ever after

Its not even an origional and is word for word here:Turner Diaries written by:

Dr. William Luther Pierce III[1] (September 11, 1933 – July 23, 2002) was the leader of the white separatist National Alliance organization, and a principal ideologue of the white nationalist movement. He later worked with George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party.

My old man and many other Kiwis went to war against these ideals and others.
I truly hope you are only taking the piss..?