Operation at a standstill for one and half hours due to power failure while operation was halfway through

Operation at a standstill for one and half hours due to power failure while operation was halfway through

News is reported from Wathupitiwala Hospital which gives food for thought about the risk involved in carrying out operations in hospitals with lack of facilities.

A team comprising 2 Specialist Pediatricians and Gynecologists of that hospital were engaged in a surgery of removing the womb of a 45 year old female last morning and have had to face a mishap

because of a power cut which extended upto a period of one and a half hours during the operation. As this power cut had occured half an hour after the operation had begun and the womb was open, the surgeons were faced with a predicament.

The surgical theatre was in a state of sheer darkness and under these circumstances the rest of the surgical proceedings had come to a standstill with the life-safety system going dead as a result. What the Director of the hospital had informed was that though there was a generator in the hospital it had not been possible to activate it due to some defect.

It was reported that the patient's womb was thus left open for a period of one and a half hours and that the rest of the operation was set in motion after power returned. Fortunately the patient had not suffered any distress as such.

It is indeed a problematic situation when such a risky moment is prevalent in cases when an operation is in progress. What the Deputy Doctor-in-Charge had commented on this situation was that until the default of the generator was not noticed, they were not aware about it. He had also mentioned that the electricity board was contacted and measures were taken to get back the electricity supply.