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Exactly a year after her controversial death, Folole Muliaga was yesterday remembered with prayer during the last day of her inquest.
Family friend Reverend Talagi led the prayer at the Auckland Coroner's Court that was followed by a minute's silence ahead of closing submissions by lawyers representing the Muliaga family, Mercury Energy, Vircom and Counties Manukau District Health Board.
Mrs Muliaga died three hours after power was cut to her home. She was using an oxygen machine at the time and the inquest has been trying to determine the cause of death.
Coroner Gordon Matenga reserved his decision yesterday and gave no indications on how long he would take to release his report.
Mr Matenga said he knew the eight day inquest had been hard for everyone involved and thanked them for the contribution.
Olinda Woodroffe, counsel for Mr Muliaga, said even though Mrs Muliaga's would have probably eventually died from her sickness it was likely her power being cut contributed to her death.
Ms Woodroffe said medical advice given to Mrs Muliaga was also inadequate and had led her to being "tunnel visioned" because she was focused on healthy eating and exercise and was never told how sick she was.
She also called for the coroner to recommend the Counties Manukau DHB focused more on its treatment of Pacific Island patients, by more use of hospital interpreters who had good understanding of verbal and body language.
Mercury Energy lawyer Adam Ross said the power company would never have had the power cut if they had known Mrs Muliaga needed it for medical reasons. He told the coroner Mercury had taken a number of steps to ensure the incident was never repeated and welcomed any useful recommendations.
Garth Gallaway, lawyer for contracting company Vircom, said contractors were already well trained and any more rules would make it difficult for them. He said the contractor who cut the power couldn't have known she was dependant on electricity, even though she had oxygen tubes in her nose.
Counties Manukau DHB lawyer Adam Lewis said Middlemore Hospital's care of Mrs Muliaga was of a high standard and that it was her own decision not to tell her family details of her illness.
