A MUM has told how her electric car saved her son’s life by powering his dialysis machine during a powercut, saying she’ll never switch back to petrol.
Kristy Holmes, from Queensland, Australia, used the motor’s emergency power systems to support 11-year-old Levi’s medical equipment during the blackout.
GettyAn Australian mum used her EV to power her son’s life-saving dialysis machine during a blackout[/caption]
Storms and flash floods in their local area caused widespread outages on Christmas Day, leaving the Holmes family fearing for the young lad’s safety.
When it became clear that the electricity supply would not be returning any time soon, Kristy came up with the idea to use her BYD Atto 3 to keep the dialysis machine powered up.
She made use of the motor’s “vehicle to load” system, which allows the car to effectively act as an emergency generator.
It is most often used to charge up other EVs but can theoretically power almost any normal electrical appliance.
Kristy told The Guardian: “We ran [the dialysis] off the car.
“We only needed to use it for the one night. We could have run it for at least four nights and then have to go charge the car somewhere.
“It’s the most amazing car I’ve ever owned.
“Now it’s been able to save my son during a storm, I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a petrol car again.”
Young Levi is awaiting a kidney transplant and would have faced a life-threatening illness if the machine had lost power.
Dialysis is used to clean the blood when the kidneys, which usually perform that function, shut down.
Without it, people with impaired kidneys face severe health consequences, including vomiting, cramps, shortness of breath and even death as toxins build up in their bloodstream.
Thankfully, the amazing EV meant that Levi was able to stay at home and wait out the storm until power returned, rather than having to travel to the nearest major city, Brisbane, amid dangerous weather to receive treatment.
It comes after new figures revealed the worst places in Britain for EV ownership.
Meanwhile, we gave readers a look at the 10 new electric models coming in 2024.