(Trinidad Guardian) – It was total chaos at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Port-of-Spain General Hospital on Wednesday afternoon, after a power failure.
This caused much panic among doctors, nurses and relatives of the patients. Many people were seen standing outside the ICU, expressing their concerns about the situation.
A British national said her father and the seven other patients were kept alive by medical personnel who had to manually pump equipment. She said, “This was very unacceptable.” She said the power outage occurred around 4.30 pm, while she was visiting her father—a heart patient.
“The doctors and nurses responded immediately to the patients’ care,” she said. But as the doctors noticed the generator was not coming on, she said, she heard one of the doctors shout: “Bag them, bag them.” It was explained later that “bag them” meant “to hand-pump” the machines connected to patients. She said, “Everyone became frantic and concerned when they saw the nurses and doctors using hand pumps to keep the patients alive.” She questioned how this could happen as the ICU was the last chance for patients’ survival. “My father had a fluid build-up in his heart and a stroke and the ventilator was only thing that was keeping him alive,” she said.
“However, he has been getting the best care from the doctors and nurses, so I cannot fault them for what has happened. Unfortunately, they have been let down by the lack of proper resources and infrastructure. The government needs to invest more into healthcare for its own citizens.”
Another family member said when electricity first went at 11.30 am, the generator came on but on second occasion, it failed to kick in. He said the life support machine that was connected to his father started beeping. “At that point, my father started gasping for breath and the nurse ran to hand-pump the machine to keep him alive…We became very frantic. It was a horrendous experience.”
Debbie-Ann Bailey, acting corporate communications manager at the North-West Regional Health Authority, confirmed that “Port-of-Spain General Hospital experienced some problems with an electrical breaker at the hospital’s Central Block.” She said technicians worked to rectify the problem which was resolved just after 7 pm.
