20 May,2011 06:49 AM IST | | Atul Krishan and Astha Saxena
In an unfortunate incident, an 81-year-old woman died and several other patients were affected after an underground wire connecting the main electricity line at a northwest Delhi hospital caught fire, leading to power failure. The incident happened at around 12:30 pm at the 70-bedded Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital of Rohini Sector-6 area.
Hit hard: Patients being shifted out of Ambedkar hospital in Rohini
after a fire caused by short circuit in the main electricity line of
the hospital led to power failure. Pic/Mid Dayu00a0
Sources said the woman was being shifted out of the hospital when she died. "A major fire had broken out in the underground cable wire connecting the main electricity system of the hospital, near the electricity wing. Due to the sudden short circuit and fire the electricity system of the whole hospital failed causing panic among patients," said an ambulance staff deployed with the hospital.
The Outpatient Department of the institute had to be shut down by its Medical Superintendent after the incident. The patients were shifted to other hospitals in the city. Sources said the problem began at around 3:30pm when due to power failure the hospital put the generator on. "It failed and led to a short circuit in the wiring. As a result the fire," they said.
Around 24 children were admitted to the nursery wing of the hospital; four of them were critical. All were rushed to Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital. Several other patients were shifted to Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital, Deen Dayal Upadhyay and Bhagwan Mahabir Hospital. Some of the people were suffering from heart ailment and a few of them were on ventilator. In fact, sources said the hospital doesn't even have enough ventilators.u00a0A hospital source said that oxygen cylinders too were in short-supply institute.
u00a0
"Panic gripped the patients as they were shifted out. None of the doctors was telling them what exactly had happened. Hospital employees were only informing them that they were being moved for their betterment," said the source. "Eighteen patients were admitted in the ICU of the hospital. The situation is now under control. We have a four-hour back-up system if electricity supply fails. We had enough time to shift people to other hospitals," claimed Medical Superintendent of the Hospital CM Chanijo.
The Other Side
The 81-year-old woman identified as Khairi Singh was admitted in the hospital in the ICU. She died a natural death. Her death has nothing to do with the electricity failure.
-CM Chanijo, medical superintendent, Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital
Emergency!
"Last year a similar incident happened at the hospital due to which there was no electricity here for a week and the patients were sent to nearby institutes," sources said.
