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The family of Folole Muliaga is likely to seek compensation from Mercury Energy and Counties Manukau District Health Board following the release of the coroner's inquest into her death.
Mrs Muliaga, 44, was receiving oxygen therapy at her Mangere home when the power was cut due to unpaid bills in May 2007. A just-released coroner's report says the stopping of the oxygen therapy and the stress caused by it contributed to her death.
The report said the way the power was disconnected was not a factor. The official cause of death was cardiac arrest caused by morbid obesity.
Coroner Gordon Matenga said power company Mercury Energy didn't follow guidelines when dealing with the Muliagas and also criticised Counties Manukau Health Board for not discussing a non-resuscitation order with Mrs Muliaga or her family.
Muliaga family spokesman Brenden Sheehan said the family would be "instructing solicitors to explore all legal avenues" following the findings.
"The coroner established there was a cause and effect over her death, and that Mercury Energy didn't follow the guidelines of the Electricity Commission," Mr Sheehan said.
"We're also looking at options against the hospital (Counties Manukau DHB), particularly over informing the family about her care."
Mr Sheehan said he hoped the family and the agencies involved could come to some agreement to prevent the case having to come before the courts.
Olinda Woodroffe, the lawyer for Mrs Muliaga's husband Lopaaeva, said she was confident there were strong legal grounds for compensation.
She said it was pleasing Mercury Energy had improved its procedures for vulnerable customers but said it had a legal obligation to do so before Mrs Muliaga's death.
During the inquest in May, Mr Matenga said he heard from four doctors who differed in opinion on the role the stopping of oxygen played in her death. He preferred the evidence that the oxygen supply could not be discounted as a contributing factor.
"The contribution of the cessation of oxygen therapy and therefore the effects of the power being disconnected cannot be ignored or set to one side."
He also accepted the stress of the power being cut also played a part.
Mercury Energy
The report said Mercury Energy acknowledged they weren't fully compliant with some guidelines. It did assist vulnerable customers who identified themselves but didn't provide information about self-identification for vulnerable customers like the Muliagas who "probably weren't aware what help was available to them".
However, he said power disconnection was not foreign to either Mr or Mrs Muliaga and they were aware of the consequences if their bills went unpaid.
Mercury Energy comes in for criticism by the coroner for not regarding the family as vulnerable and making further enquiries even though Mr Muliaga rang them and told the company his wife who was the account holder was in hospital.
While Mr Muliaga didn't advise the call centre of the nature of his wife's illness, the call taker at Mercury Energy also never made enquiries into it, which in light of Electricity Commission guidelines in place at the time, highlighted a failure in Mercury Energy's systems.
Contractor escapes blame
The contractor, who has name suppression, was widely blamed for being uncaring in cutting off the power immediately after Mrs Muliaga died, even receiving death threats, but he escapes blame in the findings.
Mr Matenga said while the contractor must have walked over the tubing on the floor he accepted he did not notice it.
He said his impression of the contractor was that he was open, honest, frank and careful in giving evidence and he was not seeking to "embellish or justify himself" and his evidence was "credible".
He said the contractor's failure to enquire if Mrs Muliaga needed the oxygen was balanced against her and her son's failure to advise she needed it.
Medical treatment
Regarding her medical treatment, Mr Matenga said Counties Manukau Health Board staff didn't follow its own policy when the decision about making a non-resuscitation order was made. The decision was recorded on clinical records but there was no plan of care recorded and no discussion with her family.
"That is not good enough," Mr Matenga said.
"If there had been discussion about it it would have reinforced the seriousness of her condition."
The coroner said he accepted her children didn't really know how sick she was and they didn't know doctors felt resuscitation shouldn't be attempted if she went into cardiac arrest.
