Two electricity companies were not to blame for the death of a Palmerston man when an unforeseen power cut stopped his breathing apparatus and there was no battery backup on his electric-powered respirator, Otago-Southland coroner David Crerar has found.
However, Mr Crerar has backed calls from Wayne John Haaima's parents, Rick and Jenny, and recommendations in a review of his death that patients who depend on ventilators to breathe should be provided with machines that have a backup power supply.
Mr Crerar, in a written finding, found Wayne Haaima (28) died at his parents' home on December 16, 2010, from acute respiratory failure due to an advanced stage of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
His BiPAP respiratory machine, which kept him alive, had stopped during an 82-minute electricity outage from 3.10am.
Usually, boys with the severe respiratory disease died in mid to late teens, but the exceptional care by Mr and Mrs Haaima - praised by Mr Crerar, and commended by a medical review, and by doctors and a nurse - resulted in his surviving for 28 years.
That included putting in place their own backups for their son, which had worked in past power outages.
These were a generator, battery backup on his wheelchair and special wiring in a transport van to power his ventilator.
However, on December 16, they did not hear the alarm on the ventilator until, they estimated, about 3.25am.
When they checked Wayne, he was not breathing and was cold. Attempts to revive him failed.
Both parents were at a loss as to why they did not wake up when the alarm went off, but both had been very busy in their shopping before Christmas and were very tired that night, they told the coroner.
The unplanned power outage occurred when two fuses blew, cutting electricity to 967 customers in East Otago, including the Haaima household. Power was restored by 4.28am.
PowerNet, the lines company, did not have Wayne recorded as vulnerable, although Mrs Haaima understood his medical dependency was recorded with their retailer, Contact Energy.
Mr Crerar said while there was "no fault or responsibility" with either company, Wayne's death had identified some factors that were in need of further investigation.
He would draw to the Electricity Authority's attention the difficulty of having a dependent patient listed with one company, but not another.
Mrs Haaima, in a letter to Mr Crerar, had said nothing would be gained by apportioning blame and she felt it was not the power company or the local power board employees' fault that Wayne died.
After the death, the Southern District Health Board carried out a review, identifying the availability of ventilators with a four-hour battery backup, and Mr Crerar supported its recommendations.
The review panel recommended consideration be given to the purchase of a sufficient number of those machines for patients showing signs of increasing dependence on ventilators, but not requiring full life-support.
It also recommended establishment of a global patient information sheet for electricity authorities.
