Oh, that’s not going to go well when his family sues them. Pretty sad for him and his family.
Having lived with someone who had steadily declining ability to take in oxygen due to scar tissue. And having discovered how hard it is to stay connected to that life giving supply. Then realizing every time the patient isn’t getting enough oxygen there is a destruction/decay of the brain and nervous system…
If he fell over within 12 minutes, I’m sorry all. He was a dead man walking for some time. I hope people got a chance to have some meaningful time recently. The concentrators I have seen have a backup battery built-in. It should have been the responsibility of whoever was maintaining his equipment to keep that working.
We got to the point, even so, to keep a tall pressure bottle nearby and had many in stock in our residence. I also had a 3kw Honda Genset and 12 gallons of gas beyond what is in the supply tank. AND I had my partners’ situation on file with Police, Fire Department, and Power Company as a critical shelter in place with O2 required.
Sadly, and very seriously, California is playing with end of days like disaster response. While we may well see successful lawsuits because civilization will return to flow; it is a forewarning of what happens to the fragile when societal services and infrastructure fail for much less time than most people think they can survive.
Edit Oh, and this guy, as fragile as he was was alone. My partner could not have survived as long as she did without someone around 24/7.
This is a tough one. After last years fires, PG&E has been held responsible for the”Camp Fire” that killed 85 people, destroyed 14,000 homes and burned 153,000 acres. PG&E has since filed for bankruptcy and is under court ordered monitoring including independent arborists who are monitored by attorneys to confirm that the company is following the proper guidelines for keeping lines from being affected by trees and foliage.
While the loss of life due to the outages is terrible, the company provided notification and warnings about the probable outages and information about the possible effects of the outages, including medical equipment.
In light of the circumstances, I’m not sure what the company could have done differently. And, in reality, the same result could have occurred had a car hit an electric pole and taken a line down unexpectedly. From a liability perspective, it is hard to say that PG&E is not acting reasonably by shutting down power in areas with increased risk. In fact, one could ask if it is reasonable for someone dependent upon continuous electric power to sustain their life should not have taken precautions to provide power in the event of a power outage.
Is it reasonable when the government regulates the industry because it is an essential public service? I think the government control and regulation leads to an assumption of responsibility. This company operates under the aegis of the government regulation, so they also assume that responsibility.
A storm or tree down is an act of God… a deliberate blackout to limit liability in case of fires is a business choice.
On the other hand, I live in a bunker in Missouri and we are the last house on the power line… so clearly I think its imprudent to have no backup plan if the power goes out. More so if one is on medical life support.
Should one have a backup plan? Yes. But I still think the power company did wrong.
I wish medical device manufacturers would plan ahead for a situation such as this is. With constant warning of the power grids going down or another example like what happened in Tennessee I believe Severville(sp) with the entire town going up in flames you would think that medical device companies would plan for natural emergencies
A lot of medical devices do have battery backup or have that as an option. Unfortunately most life sustaining devices have a high power requirement and battery life is usually quite limited… minutes to hours. Battery operation is really intended to give you time to get to another power source.
Because of medical device regulations, a device must be tested with all possible authorized accessories, so you can’t just offer, say, a connection for a car battery. If you did, you’d have to test (extensively) with all types of car and marine and commercial and motorcycle batteries on the market, and with batteries of all ages, qualities and conditions… not possible to do that and produce a device that will get approved.
The right combination is a battery backup with an alternative power source like a generator… but you may have to get it yourself because your medical insurance company is probably not covering it.
Hey Zee, what’s happening?
Well isn’t there a commercial on TV that has a portable device (like the original Bag Phone) if anyone remembers this? Like 100 years ago; well it’s very much portable but I do not know if Medicare covers the cost or not. And probably some can’t afford. I really don’t know what the cost is there.
New devices all the time @Robert8… and there are some portable oxygen concentrators but they are probably limited battery time… definitely not days. Battery tech has to get us there and it’s still catching up.
Yeah I got you but electric going down should not be Zee. There should be some sort of a community centers that are up, or something that has power. In different designated areas.
I understand all the comments about his health, however they responded to a call at 340 AM. One could easily assume he went to sleep not knowing his power would be shut off in the middle of the night. If that’s the case he would’ve woken up because he couldn’t breathe. By the time he figured out what happened it was already too late.
Yeah, Sad as can be. Everyone has had power problems. I know I have and believe it or not I have a power station next to me is how close it is but every so often you hear a very loud popping noise and you just know what’s next.
High winds are also an act of God. A tree that downed a line is presumed to have caused the Camp fire last year, another act of God, which PG&E is being held responsible.
SO the question is, do you wait and see if the high winds cause another fire and risk a catastrophe like the Camp fire or do you plan around the known danger and take steps to stop another catastrophic fire? I am guessing that regulators were part of the decision making process.
As far as responsibility goes, PG&E has declared bankruptcy. They have filed under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code which is an organization and financial restructure. The Court has allowed creditors, including the government, investors and claimants from the Camp fire to be part of the reorganization plan. Should things go south, PG&E can file under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy code which would liquidate the company and basically shutdown the company leaving it to someone else to come in and take their place.
PG&E is a under intense scrutiny after last year’s fire. If the blame game picks up steam, the left coast will be left powerless, figuratively and literally, against a company that may end up being judgment proof, and all the parties that are currently part of the reorganization plan may be left with empty pockets. But it will have a new name! Golden State Power Light & Gas Co. It might be more appropriate to name it Golden State Co. because there may not be any power, light or gas.