53-year-old New Hampshire grandmother Kay Phaneuf died this weekend after National Grid cut her power over an unpaid bill. Phaneuf suffered from a heart condition that required her to sleep in an oxygen tent and use a plug-in oxygen machine. The worker who disconnected the power after ringing Phaneuf’s bell and waiting several minutes at the door apparently didn’t notice a big red sign that warned people not to smoke because of the oxygen machine. National Grid is claiming they followed proper procedures, but that isn’t stopping New Hampshire’s Public Utilities Commission from opening an investigation.
David Graves, a spokesman for National Grid, said in a phone interview that the meter worker “had no record to indicate there was a medical note on the account.’’
“We follow the state regulations to protect the customer and to protect the company as well,’’ he said. “The last thing that we want to do is cut off a person’s service.’’
The account had included a medical notification, Graves said, but it had expired on May 15.
“We sent them a letter on April 30 advising them of the expiration, but there was no response,’’ Graves said. “We sent out a letter on June 1 advising them that service would be shut off no earlier than June 15, but they didn’t respond to that either. In our review of this event, we found nothing to indicate that we didn’t follow proper procedure. And there is nothing so far to indicate that the shutoff of electricity had anything to do with her medical emergency.’’
He said the company goes beyond the state’s 60-day medical notification requirement and gives 90 days.
The President of the company, Tom King, added: “[w]e take this matter very seriously…”
The Public Utilities Commissions has asked the company to produce a slew of records, and is working to make sure that other utilities adhere to their own procedures so that no other customers die such thoroughly avoidable deaths.
Power is cut, a woman dies, and furor follows [The Boston Globe] (Thanks, GitEmSteveDave!)
NH woman on oxygen dies after power cut to home [AP]
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Assuming the electric company is telling the truth, I cannot fault the electric company over this. They followed a reasonable procedure, which went above what is required by law, and took reasonable action. Someone failed her, but it wasn’t the electric company. What failed her was herself and/or her care givers. They are the ones that did not respond to inquiries from the electric company. If you or your caregivers are unable to perform a basic task like responding to letters from the electric company, then you should be placed in alternative care.
If a third party is to share some of the blame, it might be whoever made the battery backup for the oxygen system. The article said it was present but not working. If the battery failed due to a fault rather than user error, then the manufacturers of the device do share some of the blame. But I don’t see how the electric company is to blame here.
Should t such a device have some sort of battery backup? What if a storm takes the power out, or a Plymouth sun dances into a pole?
If i where the worker and saw the oxygen sign I would have called my supervisor advised some one with medical condition was in home and might need the power kept on. and asked for a clarification before disconnecting.
But obviously our public school educations have once again come thru loud and clear to not use our brains.
This is why when i have to work on electrical circuits I use a pad lock not a zip tie to turnoff an electrical switch because of all the stupid ,ignorant ,uneducated people our schools have produced who have no common sense and would take the zip tie off and turn the switch on.because they found it off
I see it everyday.
Some of the responders here are completely heartless. A couple handling a serious illness is obviously overwhelmed with bills and keeping up with activities. The article indicates minimal steps and fast action by National Grid (formerly Keyspan). A two letters apparently send regular mail and 45 days later they determine there is an intent not to respond. How do they know a lawyer wasn’t responding (which takes time) or there was a response but it had not been recorded in their system yet? There is no indication they tried to make personal contact other than one visit (no phone calls are mentioned).
So some here blame the customer since she has responsibilities. How about the responsibility of the power company? A power company that has an account with a medical note should have more responsibility to protect lives. If it was winter (in my state at least) they lawfully could not shut off power since the lack of heat might kill someone.
We all know that when times are tough we pay the company that is the most aggressive. National Grid and Keyspan before them hasn’t been aggressive in the least about collecting overdue accounts. I handle condo bills and pay National Grid twice a year. I’ve never gotten any notice that my payments were 6 months behind. Not even an interest charge.
So some utility worker shows up at a house to shut off the power. When he noticed the sign on the door, did he call a supervisor and ask about next steps? Some intelligence from start of issue 45 days ago to now would have been helpful. A medical note expires — well was there any change in the electricity demand? No, well red lights — the customer is still alive and needing a supply of power. A notice on the door and the electric meter is still running? Another red light, it would be an electric dryer or it could be life support why take a chance?
Again, no indications of a personal contact such as phone calls or messages, other than one visit by a worker.
National Grid fka Keyspan has responsibility to the community and they did a minimum to protect this person.
Some here get excited only about things that affect their lives — receipt checkers, Comcast, etc. Have some heart for your neighbors.
I send this article to the Consumerist last Thursday and also send it to my congressmen and state reps. Screw up another time National Grid and you’ll find yourself with enough red tape as to never have the power react to unpaid bills.
How about the responsibility of her family? Your grandmother is in an oxygen tent and in such bad health she can’t read or respond to her mail and you do nothing?
Seriously?
My grandma was in excellent health and I saw her at least twice a week.
You can’t prove a negative — you don’t know they read and ignored messages. She lives with her husband. For all we know he was out getting the portable oxygen machine serviced. How do you know he didn’t care? (A 53 year old doesnt have grown grandchildren for cripes sakes)
Where was the family in all of this? Were none of them around to assist her with bills & finances? Nobody noticed that unpaid utility bills were piling up?
I bet they’ll show up all weepy eyed when it comes time to talk about the huge lawsuit they’ll be filing.
There’s plenty of evidence here that the utility company acted irresponsibly. There’s no evidence of her husband’s actions.
Knowing she probably can’t take care of these things herself, who WAS?
really? assuming the family willfully ignored granny?
please. in this economy, this corporatist world – did it ever occur to you that her family might be working? even if at jobs with FMLA – ever tried to get FMLA for family care? good luck with that. assuming of course you can afford that unpaid FMLA time. . .
As a woman who is 58, I really hate that this woman is identified as a grandmother! How many times do you see a man identified as a grandfather? Um, never! Unless it’s directly relevent to the story.
They should have called and knocked on the door repeatedly even if it took several days and several visits and actually talked to a real live person before turning off the power.
It isn’t a stretch for me to believe that the ‘professionsal’ who set up the oxygen machine didn’t know what they were doing and didn’t get the battery backup set up right. In the HOSPITAL after surgery my mother’s oxygen saturation alarm kept going off and my sister kept calling the nurse and complaining about it. The nurse kept saying stuff like, oh she moved her finger don’t worry about it, even when my sister was looking at her finger when it went off. Finally that one went off duty and another nurse came on. When my sister told her about all the alarms, the first thing she did was check and the oxygen wasn’t even PLUGGED in!!
These people should be charged with murder and prosecuted accordingly, I agree with Beeker once a person has a medical exemption on your power you DON’T turn off their power until you get in touch with someone period!
Fail!
In my community, we have power outages routinely. Lengthy ones. It’s the worst electrical service I’ve ever experienced (thanks, SRP). Oh, and it’s a retirement community – mostly “active adults,” but many with medical issues that require such equipment. If anything good can come from a tragedy, I hope that this one prompts people to ensure that their loved ones who require equipment to live have backup power supplies.
The article says she had a portable oxygen device. All we know is she was alone when her husband was out. The device may not have been within reach, or the husband may have been getting a refill.
Where the hell was this woman’s family? Why were they ignoring letters from the utility company?
My ex’s mom was on two oxygen machines not long before she died, and someone on those things should not be left alone. You literally can’t get up, you can’t move around, because you’re tethered to the thing. The most she could do was go in to the bedroom where her potty was. The rest of the time she was either in bed or in her lift chair. And she weighed close to 400 pounds because she couldn’t move much.
If the family had trouble paying the bill, they should have called the company and tried to work with them. I’ve had to do that in the winter when gas prices get really high. They were so bad this year that I just THIS MONTH got caught up. I just kept paying the past due amount until the current amount dropped low enough that I could pay all at once. Mine also takes payments. Surely they could have worked something out.
Where do u see in the facts that no one attempted to communicate w the utility company?
How about the part where they turned off the electricity….
Hate to see people blaming the victim here. We don’t know anything about her or her husband, or why she, he, and her medical provider did not respond to mail. But utilities service, like education and health care, reflect basic human needs. You want to go into that business, you need to respect what it means to people’s very existence.
I agree that it’s not smart to have to renew medical notes; when in doubt, with the past inclusion of a medical note, they shouldn’t cut the line after one visit. You can set up systems to reflect this. So the company makes a little less profit, in order to protect the most at-risk customers from dying or being hurt? From a business and a moral standpoint that’s a fair tradeoff.
One thing to consider is that sometimes – of all things – mail gets lost or delayed. For more than a year we dealt with a horrible power provider who refused to update our address. Imagine if you live in West L.A. but some of your mail is coded for Santa Monica.
I remember the moron I spoke to on the phone who insisted, absolutely insisted, which town I actually lived in. Every other piece of mail I had listed the correct address. As a result, until we got out of the contract, every bill arrived at least two weeks late, because it was being sent to the wrong post office – and no, they wouldn’t change our billing dates to factor in the apparent slowness of their bills. Sometimes we would literally receive the bills the day after they were due.
Why do we automatically assume it’s this lady’s fault, and not the fault of the “proper procedure” employed by the company?
This could be a commercial for battery backups.