Gandhi Hospital power outages leads to 21 deaths

21 patients died at the Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad on Friday and the staff blamed the power cuts for the deaths. Reports suggested that the Gandhi Hospital officials were quoted saying that each of the 21 deaths would have to be probed in order to determine if any of them was directly or indirectly linked to the blackout.

Some of the deaths were of patients who were on life support systems, such as ventilators and incubators. While Ambu-bags providing hand-pressed oxygen were used on the patients who were on ventilators, reports revealed that the gas may have been administered incorrectly by some of the attendants. The task which is usually administered by the hospital staff was left to the attendants.

Electricity first was cut off around 3 pm and then continued to do so at regular intervals. The power supply was said to have been affected due to an internal problem in the electrical room of the hospital. While the hospital staff was shutting down the generators to switch over to power supply after it was restored, the short circuit took place. Eventually after repairs and maintenance, the supply was restored at night.