Power Company Kills Woman Using Breathing Machine Because of Unpaid Bill

Now they'll surely get their money, and if not, well they sure showed her who has the final word.

Ridiculous to justify killing with owing any amount of money.

 

So she was too poor to live
If you don't have enough money . . . just DIE
Is that your Solution?

Money over People
Screw who you Screw. . . just get that money!!

Rocket River

 

That's horrible, but something tells me there's more to this story...

 

why does dollar amount matter??? he shouldnt have shut if off if it was only $122, but it would have been ok if it was a couple grand?

tough **** for her. you dont pay your power bill, and it gets shut off. you expect power companies to go on a case-by-case basis for the billions of people who use it?

 

I think its ridiculous to justify not paying a bill. If they had just paid it, they wouldn't be in this situation. We all agree $122 isn't much. I'm sure they could have come up with it if they wanted, yet they instead decided to rely on charity. If I was in this situation and my life depended on it, I would have paid it.

Sick people need to pay bills too. I used to work in hotels and there were a number of times where people would say "hey can you comp me a night, my mom is in the hospital" and so on.

 

Comping someone a night because their mother is sick is quite a bit different than shutting off one's electricity that is keeping them alive.

Some of you people absolutely sicken me. I am happy I am not you.

 

I'm not sure why the woman and her son didn't protest a little more vigorously at the time. The woman was probably not very physically fit, but her son was somewhere between 5 and 20 years old. Couldn't he fetch the shotgun, brandish a butcher knife, set the guy's truck on fire, or something? Certainly, it is not his fault at all; I just can't imagine sitting idly by. That's gotta suck.

I don't blame the tech too much. I work for an electric company, and people will use any excuse to keep their power on. He may have suspected the family was lying to keep the power on -- it's too bad he'd have been wrong in that. Obviously, he should err on the side of caution, but if he hears that same story everyday from a bunch of deadbeats, what's he supposed to do? Ideally, the company should have a system in place to identify those households that require more care. The tech was put in a bad position.

I read a quote recently about corporate ethics that seems appropriate:

 

I'm glad you said it first.

Why didn't the family call the paramedics as soon as the electricity was turned off?

 

Sounds like they did.

 

That's the impression I get as well.

 

That depends on if she couldn't breathe at all without it or if she could go a short time and still be ok. This quote makes me think it's the latter.

If she was able to go talk to the guy she could obviously leave the machine for a while.

In the US electric companies keep a list of people that require power for medical reasons and can't just cut their power off. Those people are also first priority for power restoration after storms. Maybe they didn't have that there or the lady didn't let them know. Also, if I were in her situation I think I'd have a back up plan, like a generator or hand pump or something, what would she have down if a storm knocked power out for a few hours?

Regardless stuff like that shouldn't happen.

 

That's stupid...I mean, they could have easily cut the power off without even going to the house...

 

I think all power companies in the US have a do not disconnect list. To get on the list you have to show proof of medical need.

 

If your life depended on a bill, I would it would be a first priority....not your car, rent, etc. Not enough facts to distribute blame.

 

Better yet, walk next door to the neighbor's house and plug her in over there. If she can't move, get a couple of extension cords and run them over from the neighbor's house.

 

Oh yeah, she decided to not pay the bill to stick it to the electric company.

Maybe she had to pay for her medicine, medical treatment, insurance...neither you nor I know the financial situation, but to assume that she could have just come up with the money is just plain ridiculous.

 

This is kind of tough for me. Of course the death was tragic, but I don't know if I can honestly blame the guy who cut the electricity off. He's probably heard a million excuses in the past, and just because someone says "come and see for yourself" doesn't mean anything. What's he supposed to do - pack a lunch and visit everybody's house that makes up an excuse to make sure they're not lying?

I dunno... but just as it's sad something like this happened, it's also sad to say the company cut off the woman's electricity as if they knew for a fact the act would kill her. Now if they truly did know this woman was on life support equipment (via prior paperwork or something) and failed to recognize it, they're definitely at fault.

 

My aunt works for an electric company and in the field, they are always a walkie talkie call away from home base for some guidance.