Death of 3 Patients at Bo’ali Hospital in Zahedan Following Repeated Power Outages
According to eyewitnesses including medical staff, on the 26th of June, 3 patients at Bo’ali Hospital in Zahedan lost their lives due to power outages affecting oxygen-generating devices. Officials at this hospital have claimed that the cause of death for these three individuals was their physical health conditions. However, according to some medical staff present at the hospital, the prolonged power outage led to the shutdown of respiratory devices and the death of these 3 patients.
According to a report by Hrana news agency citing ISNA, following a prolonged power outage, 3 patients at Bo’ali Hospital in Zahedan lost their lives.
Based on this report, on the 26th of June, a power outage and sudden voltage fluctuation at Bo’ali Hospital in Zahedan created difficult conditions for medical staff, and it was announced at that time that 3 patients hospitalized at this medical center lost their lives due to the shutdown of oxygen-generating devices.
On the same day, it was announced that the patients’ deaths occurred due to the power outage, and subsequently, officials of the provincial electricity distribution company issued a statement emphasizing that the power cut was not caused by them.
Although eyewitnesses including medical staff and patient companions insist that these three patients lost their lives due to the power outage and the failure of oxygen-generating devices, officials at Bo’ali Hospital have not confirmed that the deaths of these 3 patients resulted from the power outage and have claimed that these patients lost their lives due to physical health problems.
People who were at Bo’ali Hospital that day say the electricity was cut off at 12 noon for 3 hours.
One Zahedan resident who had a hospitalized patient at that hospital said: I admitted my wife to Bo’ali Hospital on the 18th of June due to severe lung complications, and because I was concerned about her condition, I stayed at her bedside. During those days, the rate of patient visits and COVID-related deaths were high. In addition to my wife, one of my friends was also hospitalized in an isolated emergency room, and next to him lay a critically ill patient who was breathing with a device called CPAP. They said he was from Saravan and had no companion. At 12 noon, the power in the hospital ward suddenly went out, and after that, the oxygen-generating devices in the emergency room shut down. Immediately, the hospital area descended into chaos and nurses, nursing supervisors and managers rushed to the patients with manual ambu bags, one of whom was the patient from Saravan who faced severe respiratory distress with the power outage, but ultimately they could not do anything for him and the patient died.
A healthcare worker at this hospital’s medical department, who does not wish to be identified, also confirms these accounts.
This person said: In the hospital’s emergency department, patients with blood oxygen levels below 70 percent are hospitalized. The blood oxygen levels of patients in the ICU are even lower than this number. When power is cut off, conditions become more difficult for patients hospitalized in the ICU. On that day when the power was cut for 3 hours, the hospital’s medical staff made every effort to prevent the oxygen supply to patients from being cut off, but the prolonged power outage led to the shutdown of respiratory devices and the death of 3 patients, one of whom was the man from Saravan in the hospital’s emergency department and the other 2 were patients hospitalized in the ICU.
In response to the question of why, despite the presence of a generator in the hospital, there was a delay in turning on the oxygen devices and the devices did not turn on immediately, he says: Oxygen-generating devices are very large and are controlled by several computers. When power fluctuations occur, before the generator starts up, these devices malfunction and need to be restarted. This issue creates a minimum of 40 minutes of delay in restarting the devices.
Although people present at the hospital report the June 26 incident due to the power outage, Shahab al-Din Meshai, the director of Bo’ali Hospital in Zahedan, while confirming that day’s power outage, has claimed that the death of these 3 patients was not due to the power outage.
According to Mr. Meshai, the oxygen-generating devices are connected to each other and if the power outage were to cause the death of 3 people, more than 10 patients connected to these devices would have also died that day, but this did not happen.
The director of Bo’ali Hospital in Zahedan, in response to the question that some members of the hospital’s medical staff and certainly companions present at the hospital confirm this matter that after the power outage and shutdown of oxygen-generating devices, due to the deterioration of 2 patients in the ICU and one patient in the emergency department, nurses were unable to prevent patients’ deaths with manual breathing devices, explained: It is possible that this incident did also occur, but there is oxygen above the hospitalization beds and with the shutdown of the devices, oxygen supply to patients is not cut off and immediately the patient is maintained with an ambu bag. However, there is also the issue that it is possible that an intubated patient in the emergency department did not have good physical conditions and could have lost their life even if the power had not been cut. We have deaths every day, but does the power go out every day? At this hospital, there is a CPU device and this device can keep equipment running for up to 2 hours without needing a generator.
According to the director of Bo’ali Hospital in Zahedan, there are power fluctuations at this hospital, the cause of which is the increase in power consumption load due to the presence of oxygen-generating devices.
Source: Hrana
