Nursing homes not immune to power cuts

Harish Gaur’s worst nightmare came true when his 74-year-old mother, who was on ventilator in GP Pant Hospital, a government hospital in Delhi, died after a 45-minute power failure.

While this was a one-off incident, the fact remains that in a city like Mumbai, riddled with power failures, the possibility of such an incident looms large over hospitals and nursing homes.

Intensivists in the city, however, say that all major hospitals in the city are equipped with generators, which start the moment there is a power failure. “The delay is not more than 20 to 30 seconds,” said Dr Pravin Amin, intensivist, Bombay Hospital. “All ventilators are attached to the generator,” he said.

However, that is not the case with smaller nursing homes. “If the patient is critical, we ask the family to shift the patient to a bigger hospital,” explained Dr SN Acharya, general physician. “This kind of incident has never occurred in Mumbai,” said Dr Sandhya Kamat, dean, Sion Hospital, which has over 40 ventilators, almost all of which are in constant use, due to the sheer number of critical patients it sees.

All major hospitals, private and public, have a clear plan with backup alternatives. “Providing adequate oxygenation, ventilation, anaesthesia levels, monitoring of vital signs, all need to be done continuously,” said Dr Satish Mhatre, a critical care specialist, Sharada Nursing Home, Thane.

One can avoid problems by routinely checking machinery, ensuring that appropriate and sufficient supplies are readily available and formulating a back up plan in case of an emergency situation, he added. According to doctors, the July 26 deluge was perhaps the only time when hospitals in the city faced such a problem.

Saki Naka resident Sushant Kasbe, 44, took his ailing mother, who had complained of respiratory problem, to three hospitals, before finally finding a bed available in the ICU of a major hospital in Andheri on the ill-fated day. “I still remember entering the dark hospital — the ICU was the only place that was illuminated, perhaps with the help of a generator,” recalled Kasbe.

Rachana Sawant, 30, felt the first pains of labour, even as water started slowly rising in the area around her low-lying New Mhada colony residence in Andheri on July 26.

The local nursing home did not even have an emergency generator. The Sawants went to Holy Spirit Hospital, Andheri, where baby Chaitanya was finally born, after nine agonising hours of labour.