Keeping home life-support up when power goes out (Maine)

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http://www.bangornews.com/detail/97028.html

WASHINGTON — Emergency planners are struggling to identify growing millions who need fast rescue when the lights go out: A power outage also shuts down their life-supporting home medical equipment.

It’s an issue that sneaked up on emergency officials as better medical treatments over the past decade have helped more critically ill people not only survive but also move out of nursing homes.

The Associated Press found that where these people live determines how invisible they are to rescuers, starting with whether they even know to sign up for critical-care lists operated by utilities in every state.

How serious is the problem?

When ice downed electric lines in Epping, N.H., last month, police found 60-year-old Richard Lapoint dead, hooked to his powerless oxygen machine. The town’s rescue workers hadn’t known he was power-dependent.

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