Humble circuit breaker caused hospital havoc

A POWER failure that stopped surgery at the Windhoek Central State Hospital this week was apparently caused by a mere tripped circuit breaker.

A Ministry of Works inspector said yesterday that there had been no malfunction of the hospital’s back-up generators during Sunday evening’s blackout, which hit most parts of Windhoek. On Monday morning, however, the hospital was plunged into darkness while some doctors were doing surgery.One concerned doctor clarified yesterday that they had been forced to delay surgery on Monday morning, and not on Sunday evening as earlier reported.Doctors had apparently waited about 45 minutes for the power to be restored before leaving the darkened hospital.Surgery had to be rescheduled, the source said, and doctors argued on Monday that the hospital had become a safety hazard.One doctor reportedly had to abandon a back operation that was already underway, stitching up the patient in the dark and waking him up to inform him that the surgery would have to be rescheduled.The hospital’s Acting Senior Medical Superintendent, Dr Zula Nigmatuliha, on Monday confirmed the power outages on Monday morning, Sunday evening and for a brief period on Thursday.She added that the hospital had been informed that technicians from the Ministry of Works had fixed the problem by Monday afternoon.The Deputy Permanent Secretary for the Works Ministry, Elia Akwaake, said yesterday that he had still not been informed about the incident.”But I’ve read that they fixed the problem,” Akwaake told The Namibian yesterday.On Monday morning, however, the hospital was plunged into darkness while some doctors were doing surgery.One concerned doctor clarified yesterday that they had been forced to delay surgery on Monday morning, and not on Sunday evening as earlier reported.Doctors had apparently waited about 45 minutes for the power to be restored before leaving the darkened hospital.Surgery had to be rescheduled, the source said, and doctors argued on Monday that the hospital had become a safety hazard.One doctor reportedly had to abandon a back operation that was already underway, stitching up the patient in the dark and waking him up to inform him that the surgery would have to be rescheduled.The hospital’s Acting Senior Medical Superintendent, Dr Zula Nigmatuliha, on Monday confirmed the power outages on Monday morning, Sunday evening and for a brief period on Thursday.She added that the hospital had been informed that technicians from the Ministry of Works had fixed the problem by Monday afternoon.The Deputy Permanent Secretary for the Works Ministry, Elia Akwaake, said yesterday that he had still not been informed about the incident.”But I’ve read that they fixed the problem,” Akwaake told The Namibian yesterday.