An Arizona mother has spoken of a desperate 16-hour battle to keep her paralysed son alive after a power outage struck their neighbourhood during extreme summer heat. With no electricity to run essential medical equipment amid sweltering conditions, the family faced a genuine life-threatening emergency, highlighting the risks that prolonged outages pose to disabled and medically vulnerable people, particularly during Arizona's punishing summer temperatures.

Karen Glaser scrambled to find ways to keep her son David safe as the outage dragged on for 16 hours, with the heat compounding the danger given his paralysis and reliance on power-dependent care. The case underscores broader concerns about grid reliability and emergency preparedness for households with critical medical needs during heatwaves.