THREE intensive care unit (ICU) patients had to be rushed from the Windhoek Central Hospital on Saturday after a power outage threatened their lives.
The three patients, who breathe with the help of ventilators, were transferred to Rhino Park private hospital.The electricity cut also resulted in the lifts at the hospital not working.Dr Colin Gariseb, the senior medical superintendent, who was on call at the hospital over the weekend, yesterday afternoon said he knew little about what had happened.Initially, he also said that ‘no patient was affected’. Gariseb put the blame for the power failure on the City of Windhoek. ‘It is a problem of the municipality. The power supply was affected and the relevant people informed.’Gariseb admitted that ‘the machines working with oxygen, like in the ICU (intensive care unit) were obviously affected if there is no power supply’.According to him, he had been briefed about the incident yesterday morning, but was in church when The Namibian phoned him at 14h30 yesterday afternoon and could not comment.Later Gariseb admitted that three patients had to be rushed to Rhino Park. He did not want to elaborate on the condition of these patients.’All I can say is we are aware of the problem. The Minister [of Health and Social Services, Richard Kamwi] is also aware and was there. For further comment, contact him.’Two attempts to get contact from Kamwi failed, as he hung up both times. ‘I am working. I am very busy addressing a situation and I am not here for a public relations [service],’ he said.A source said although the emergency generator kicked in, ‘it didn’t cover everything. There was a problem with the whole back-up system’.
