View photosKEY POINTS:
Folole Muliaga pleaded with an energy contractor to leave her power on and "give us another chance" shortly before she died, her son has told an inquest today.
Ietitaia Muliaga was giving evidence at the second day of the inquest into the death of his mother being held before coroner Gordon Matenga at the Auckland Coroner's Court.
Mrs Muliaga, who was using an oxygen machine about 16 hours a day, died on May 29 last year about three hours after a contractor - acting on instructions from Mercury Energy - disconnected her power over an unpaid bill of $168.40.
An emotional Mr Muliaga had to stop halfway through reading his brief of evidence, requiring his lawyer Moira Macnab to finish it for him.
He told of how he saw the Vircom contractor, whose name is suppressed, wandering behind the house before cutting the power.
He said he brought the contractor in to talk to his mother on her request, after which they walked into the house and into the living room.
Mr Muliaga said he sat at the other end of the living room, where the contractor and his mother talked for about five minutes.
He said he did not make out many words of the conversation, other than hearing his mother say "please, give us a chance".
He also heard talk about a possible discount, and heard the contractor say he was doing his job.
Mr Muliaga said his mother had tubes in her nose during the conversation, and that he and the contractor walked over tubes from the oxygen machine which were on the floor running from the living room to her bedroom.
He also said there was a loud beeping noise coming from the bedroom, similar to that made by the oxygen machine in court yesterday when the power was turned off.
When told the contractor had said he did not see the tubes and did not hear the alarm, Mr Muliaga said he could not understand how he could miss them.
He said his mother died in his hands shortly afterwards and that attempts to resuscitate her failed.
Under cross-examination from Vircom lawyer Garth Gallaway, Mr Muliaga said he didn't tell the contractor his mother needed power for her oxygen machine, nor did he hear his mother tell the contractor that.
Earlier, pathologist Dr Timothy Koelmeyer said he agreed with a colleague's report that Mrs Muliaga died as a result of morbid obesity.
Dr Koelmeyer was giving evidence as Dr Lloyd Denmark, the colleague who prepared the report, was unwell.
However, Dr Koelmeyer said he would have said more firmly that cutting off her oxygen was a contributing factor to her death. Dr Denmark had said it may have contributed.
"In my view this lady has been living on the edge so to speak," Dr Koelmeyer said. "I think there is a reduction of this oxygen delivery (and this) set the stage for the sudden disturbance to her heart rhythm."
During cross-examination from Mercury Energy lawyer Adam Ross, Dr Koelmeyer agreed she would not have been released from Middlemore Hospital on May 15 if she was completely dependent on the oxygen machine.
But he said she would have been "between totally dependent and fairly dependent".
- NZPA
