93-year-old veteran on oxygen dies in his Garfield dwelling throughout 21-hour lengthy energy outage

Ninety-three-year-old Korean War vet Tom Raith still lived independently in his Garfield home where he lived for more than 60 years, driving and preparing his own meals. But his family says he died during the power outage when his oxygen equipment lost electricity.”This was uncalled for. Why would power be off for that many hours?” Raith’s daughter Janet Zreliak told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4.Zreliak visited her father Sunday afternoon until 5 p.m. and they spoke daily. She was worried when he didn’t pick up the phone Monday.She reached a neighbor who said power had been off on her father’s street for 21 hours.”When he told me for how long it was out, I thought, ‘Oh my God,’ so I came flying down here,” Zreliak said.She arrived to discover her father dead.”I walk in the living room. My dad’s just slumped over, like on his pillow. And his oxygen was hanging out of his nose. And I just screamed. I grabbed him and it was so cold,” Zreliak said.With no power, his main oxygen system and then his portable oxygen unit had both failed. His landline and cell phones were both without power due to the outage.”I would like an answer from Duquesne Light as to why something like this has to happen. Because my dad, there was nothing wrong with him that he would not — there was no reason for him to die,” Zreliak said.Duquesne Light responded to Pittsburgh’s Action News 4’s request for comment.”While we have not been contacted by the Raith family, our hearts go out to them during this difficult time. Sunday’s storm was the most severe storm we’ve experienced this year. It left widespread damage across our service territory, and the additional storm on Monday evening impacted our restoration efforts,” wrote Hollie Geitner, director of communications, Duquesne Light Company via email. “More than 250 lineworkers and field crews have been working around the clock to restore power to 20,000 people and their work will continue through this evening to restore power to the remaining 2,000 customers.”

PITTSBURGH —

Ninety-three-year-old Korean War vet Tom Raith still lived independently in his Garfield home where he lived for more than 60 years, driving and preparing his own meals. But his family says he died during the power outage when his oxygen equipment lost electricity.

“This was uncalled for. Why would power be off for that many hours?” Raith’s daughter Janet Zreliak told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4.

Zreliak visited her father Sunday afternoon until 5 p.m. and they spoke daily. She was worried when he didn’t pick up the phone Monday.

She reached a neighbor who said power had been off on her father’s street for 21 hours.

“When he told me for how long it was out, I thought, ‘Oh my God,’ so I came flying down here,” Zreliak said.

She arrived to discover her father dead.

“I walk in the living room. My dad’s just slumped over, like on his pillow. And his oxygen was hanging out of his nose. And I just screamed. I grabbed him and it was so cold,” Zreliak said.

With no power, his main oxygen system and then his portable oxygen unit had both failed. His landline and cell phones were both without power due to the outage.

“I would like an answer from Duquesne Light as to why something like this has to happen. Because my dad, there was nothing wrong with him that he would not — there was no reason for him to die,” Zreliak said.

Duquesne Light responded to Pittsburgh’s Action News 4’s request for comment.

“While we have not been contacted by the Raith family, our hearts go out to them during this difficult time. Sunday’s storm was the most severe storm we’ve experienced this year. It left widespread damage across our service territory, and the additional storm on Monday evening impacted our restoration efforts,” wrote Hollie Geitner, director of communications, Duquesne Light Company via email. “More than 250 lineworkers and field crews have been working around the clock to restore power to 20,000 people and their work will continue through this evening to restore power to the remaining 2,000 customers.”