Elderly Emphysema Sufferer Dies After Power Is Cut

[Peg]

Elderly Emphysema Sufferer Dies After Power Is Cut

POSTED: 5:13 pm EDT June 26, 2005

UPDATED: 5:42 pm EDT June 26, 2005

KATHLEEN, Fla. -- A dispute over an electric bill has resulted in the death of an elderly Florida man.

John Howerton, 86, suffered from emphysema, a disease of the lungs. He died minutes after Lakeland Electric cut off electricity to his son's home in the Polk County community of Kathleen.

Howerton needed power to operate his oxygen machine.

The utility cut off power over a disputed bill June 14.

Richard Howerton had brought his terminally ill father home from a nursing home the day before.

When the power went off, the son scrambled to hook up a battery-operated machine. But it wasn't powerful enough to force oxygen into his father's lungs.

Richard Howerton's wife said she paid the electric bill using the Internet two days before her father-in-law died. A computer message said the payment would be posted in two days. It took four.

[lady cop]

this is tragic Peg, and unnecessary...FPL will not shut off power in these instances. if they had known there was an o2 patient there, they would not have cut the power.