Power for Survival

Chained to the electric oxygen machine that keeps her alive, Patricia Roy was breathing easier Thursday at news that California may be edging toward solving the electricity crisis.

The Santa Monica emphysema patient was among thousands jarred last week when Southern California Edison Co. warned that it could not guarantee uninterrupted power--although her doctor said she will die if her air supply is cut off for more than an hour or so.

“I’m tethered to this like a dog,” said Roy, glancing at the television-size oxygen concentrator that pumps filtered air through a 25-foot-long plastic tube into her nostrils around the clock.

“I guess I was thinking that somehow they could have a rolling blackout without involving me. I guess I was wrong.”

No one knows how many people throughout the state are in the same position as Roy, a 70-year-old retired oil company secretary. But about 800 Santa Monica residents rely on electrically operated life-support equipment in their homes--which are served by Edison and are susceptible to rolling blackouts caused by the current electricity shortage.

So far, Edison has avoided cutting off power. But the company has warned 27,000 customers with health problems to be prepared, just in case.

Letters sent last week warned that the utility “cannot guarantee uninterrupted service to any customer, even those who have special needs.” It urged those who rely on electrically operated home medical equipment “for survival” to have a backup power system or other contingency plans.

Roy’s backup system consists of a half-dozen small tanks of compressed air that she can hook into if her oxygen machine quits running. “If a rolling blackout is only an hour or two, I can get through that,” she said.

Because Santa Monica has a large population of retirees and senior citizens with health problems, volunteers have cobbled together a blackout contingency plan for those without sufficient auxiliary air tanks or battery systems for their other home medical equipment.

Local hotels equipped with emergency generators--including the luxurious Le Merigot and Lowe’s--have agreed to allow residents to come and plug in during any prolonged power outages.

Resident Stewart Resmer recruited the hotels and is attempting to arrange for free van transportation by local car dealerships for the patients and their medical equipment.

“If the power were to go off, you and I might get inconvenienced but other people might go critical fast,” said Resmer, a 49-year-old limousine driver. Those needing assistance in a blackout should call (310) 655-5790 “and we will get people there,” he said.

That kind of offer is reassuring to residents such as retired teacher Nadine Morgan, who lives on the third floor of an all-electric apartment house two blocks from the beach.

Diagnosed with congestive lung and heart failure, she relies on an oxygen concentrator. Lugging the 100-pound machine down three flights of stairs is out of the question for her, she said.

Morgan, 65, has stockpiled 17 small air tanks that don’t require electricity. That’s enough for about 72 hours, said her husband, retired movie publicist Bob Morgan.

“We’re lucky because we have good health insurance. But some HMOs only provide two of these small tanks,” Morgan said.

Although power company officials said they would attempt to bypass hospitals when ordering rolling one- to two-hour outages, some Northern California medical facilities were reportedly caught in last week’s initial blackouts. Hospitals and convalescent centers are required to be equipped with emergency generators.

Medical experts said home-operated life-support equipment is increasingly common. Along with the oxygen machines there are ventilators, intermittent respirators and electronic devices to mix and administer medicine that operate on household current, said Jack Sivas, a former Santa Monica respiratory therapist who works in Santa Cruz.

Maria Arechaederra, president of WISE Senior Services, a nonprofit Santa Monica-based agency that offers home support to medical patients, said she has fielded numerous calls from nervous residents. She said that between 800 and 1,000 residents may be using such equipment.

Edison officials said Thursday they know of 2,000 Southern California customers who could be in immediate jeopardy if their life-support equipment were inoperative for two or more hours. That many have filed certificates from their personal doctors as they requested a special electricity bill discount offered to those who use such machinery.

“We know there are more people out there who haven’t contacted us,” said Suzanne Middleburg, Edison’s manager of consumer affairs, who drafted last week’s mailing. The 27,000 who received the warning letters include those such as AIDS patients who require a constant temperature in their homes, she said.

The Edison letter was a timely reminder that patients need to be prepared, said Nadine Morgan.

But will there be a timely end to the energy crisis?

Morgan said she’s not holding her breath.