SAGINAW, Mich. -- A Saginaw family and their nine children were left in the cold when Consumers Energy shut off their power.

To make matters worse, some of those children have health problems and need electricity for their medical equipment to function.

Raising nine children may be tough enough, but for Nicole and Curtis Barnes it’s a little extra challenging.

Barnes has been laid off for the last year and Tuesday their electricity was shut off for non-payment.

Their bill comes to just over $1,500.

“We have nine kids,” said Nicole Barnes. “Two were foster kids we adopted and then we were surprised with twins of our own last year.”

Two of the Barnes’ children have breathing problems and the nebulizer they use to help them breathe is useless without electricity.

Nicole Barnes is a military veteran and was able to get some help from Veterans Affairs to pay the power bill. The VA gave her family $1,000 and the state emergency relief fund chipped in the balance of the bill.

Barnes said Consumers told her they would send someone out to restore their power, but no one showed up. The power company told WNEM TV5 that the service person was called out on gas emergencies that take priority.

After eight phone calls to Consumers Energy, the Barnes family thought perhaps their paperwork somehow got lost in the shuffle.

With no one else to turn to, the Barneses called TV5 for assistance.

“My babies are at my mother’s house,” said Nicole Barnes. “They use a breathing machine and the smoke from the fireplace was making them sick.”

After TV5 called Consumers, a service person was on site within the hour to turn the power back on. “Thank you, Jesus and thank you TV5,” said Nicole.

The Barnes family said with the heat back on, they can get their lives back to normal and bring their 1-year-old twins home.

A law recently signed by Governor Jennifer Granholm does bar power shutoffs in the winter, but only for certain groups of people: eligible low-income and senior citizens.

The law is also supposed to protect a customer or household with a family member that relies on medical equipment or has a certified medical emergency.

For more information, contact the Michigan Public Service Commission.