Teen needs 7 machines to live. Utility turns off power. Fireman pays $1000 electric bill
CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Michigan (March 18, 2016) — When the call comes, firefighters like Ryan McCuen always rush in, never quite sure what they’ll encounter.
On February 11, McCuen walked into this: a mother at wit’s end, a bedridden 18-year-old on a ventilator, his emergency battery power soon running out, and electricity to the home cut off by the local power company.
“I just happened to be put in that spot to do what I was supposed to do,” said 35-year-old McCuen. “I was just doing what you’re supposed to do.”
‘They needed their bill paid’
It started as a routine call in Michigan for Clinton Township’s Engine 5, a “nonemergency medical” as firefighters call it.
What they found in the living room of this suburban Detroit double-wide mobile home was Troy Stone, who suffers Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a particularly debilitating variation of the muscle-wasting disease. Stone, who has limited movement of his limbs and is no longer able to breathe on his own, had a tracheotomy last December. His family has struggled financially, and they had fallen behind on payments to the local utility.
Christy Stone, Troy’s mother, said their electric bill has gone up threefold since Troy had the breathing tube inserted. It now takes seven machines, all running on electricity, to keep him alive.
Despite having a letter from their doctor’s office informing DTE Energy that “there must be electrical power in the home to maintain … life support equipment,” the power was still cut off.
http://fox59.com/2016/03/18/michigan-firefighter-pays-electric-bill-to-keep-teen-on-ventilator/
Christy Stone was astonished at the matter-of-factness of this firefighter she didn’t even know.
“Ryan was standing there and he looks at me and goes, ‘I’m going to pay your electric bill,’ and I was just like — are you serious!?”
He was, and he did.
Snapping a picture of her bill, McCuen paid it, all $1,023.76 of it.
A struggle to make ends meet
Stone and her husband, Guy, had been struggling for years to make ends meet. Together they have five children, and two of them suffer from Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a rare genetic condition affecting mostly males.
Stone watched her brother die from the disease and her son, who was otherwise healthy until he was around 8 years old, is now in steady decline; the muscles throughout his body, genetically robbed of a crucial protein, slowly ebbing away. Stone’s 15-year-old son Tyler, now using a wheelchair, suffers the same condition.
Guy Stone, who works in shipping and receiving, was out of work for a year-and-a-half. He’s been back at work for a year but with five kids, two with extreme health issues, catching up has not been easy.
In January, his pay was garnished because a car was repossessed when he was unemployed. That started a slide into further financial instability, the family sinking a little further into debt every month. They’ve had help along the way from friends and family, a local church and other organizations helping with everything from house and trailer-lot payments to food.
http://fox59.com/2016/03/18/michigan-firefighter-pays-electric-bill-to-keep-teen-on-ventilator/
https://www.gofundme.com/ssa9ruw4
= new reply since forum marked as read
hate its citizens so much they would let this happen? If it hadn't been for this man, McCuen, Troy would've died. And of course we don't have healthcare as a basic human right. 
and every single one of them had a genetic disorder (can't remember which, it was a very long time ago) that caused their death by their early 20s. Family kept having kids even after they found the problem out. I knew the youngest daughter, who had watched all of her siblings die -- she was 18 when I first met her and was already showing signs of the disease. 
The parents viewed it as it was better to have 20 years then nothing, but I thought there was a profound bit of cruelty about the whole thing.
I was literally in tears reading this. So pissed that this country continues to make excuses for why we should continue making excuses for the status quo. This is a perfect example of our country, how our elected officials have failed us all through their illustrious greed. Fuck everyone that thinks any of us are going to continue bending over and taking it much longer. And while we of the shrinking middle and lower class continue to help families like this - here is what the class 1% did. They shut their power off while profiting.
And here are the politicians they gave to:
https://www.opensecrets.org/usearch/?q=Dte+energy&cx=010677907462955562473%3Anlldkv0jvam&cof=FORID%3A11
And who their Pac funded:
https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.php?cmte=C00081547&cycle=2016
Irony would have it, that the banner ad at the top of the screen reads "devil's cut".
