KEY POINTS:
The south Auckland Muliaga household had its power cut three years before the disconnection on the day Folole Muliaga died.
Mercury Energy's former general manager James Moulder said Mrs Muliaga also had several notices of various urgency during their seven years as customers warning them of unpaid bills.
Mr Moulder was giving evidence at the inquest at Auckland Coroners' Court into the death of Mrs Muliaga on May 29, 2007.
Mrs Muliaga, who was using an oxygen machine, died three hours after a contractor hired by Mercury Energy switched off her power due to an unpaid bill of $168.40.
She had been treated at Middlemore Hospital earlier that year before being released two weeks before her death. A pathologist told the inquest the cause of death was morbid obesity.
Mr Moulder said Mrs Muliaga received 24 notices warning her that payment was overdue.
She also received 14 phone calls advising her of unpaid bills, eight urgent disconnection warning letters and four final disconnection warning letters.
On one earlier occasion, April 15, 2004, the power was disconnected. It was reconnected the next day.
Mr Moulder said the company did have a register of customers whose power would not be cut off, some of them individuals who needed it for medical reasons.
He said Mercury was at no stage made aware Mrs Muliaga needed power for medical reasons.
However, he said since her death there had been greater efforts by all power companies through advertising to encourage customers to tell them if they had medical needs their power companies should know about.
The Muliaga case had also been a catalyst for the power industry to introduce several more specific guidelines on how to deal with unwell customers, Mr Moulder said.
Other witnesses to give evidence today included Mrs Muliaga's daughter Morwenna, their neighbour Oudrey Liddell, Senior Sergeant Cornelius Kluessien and oxygen machine serviceman Robert Nicholson.
Mr Nicholson said he tested the machine a few days after Mrs Muliaga's death and found it was in perfect working condition.
This included the battery-powered alarm which would sound when power was cut to the machine. He said the alarm would continue until the battery ran out or somebody switched it off.
Once power was cut off the machine would have provided about 10-15 seconds of oxygen, Mr Nicholson said.
Mrs Muliaga's son Ietitaia has given evidence that the alarm was going when the contractor talked to Mrs Muliaga. The contractor's lawyer has said he did not hear the alarm.
Mr Kluessien, the leader of the police team called to the scene the day Mrs Muliaga died, told the inquest he had trouble finding out what illness she had been suffering.
He said none of the family could say what was wrong with her other than that she had too much water in her system and not enough air.
Mr Kluessien was told her GP was in Otara, but found the GP had been in Australia for a year. The locum who answered on two occasions said he would get back to him with details about her condition but did not, he said.
Mr Kluessien said he also contacted Middlemore Hospital but after being put on to several different departments was told he could not be given the number unless he had an NHI number, which Mr Kluessien could not produce.
Lawyers spent this afternoon debating whether the contractor who cut off Mrs Muliaga's power should have permanent name suppression.
Coroner Gordon Matenga is expected to announce his decision at 10am tomorrow.
The inquest is expected to last about two weeks.
- NZPA
