TIJUANA (Border Report) — Tijuana’s Zeta weekly newspaper is reporting that from Oct. 23-25, Tijuana’s General Hospital experienced a power outage resulting in the deaths of five people who were on ventilators.
According to the report, the hospital managed to get the electricity turned on in some areas of the facility, but at low voltage.
Reportedly during the outage, when the ventilators stopped working, two people died almost immediately with three others dying hours later in another area of the hospital where the power had been restored.
Also, due to the power outage, the elevators stopped working preventing the victims’ bodies from being moved for at least two days and could not be taken to the medical examiner’s office.
Fourteen others on ventilators managed to survive.
The power outage is said to have also disabled labs and operating rooms throughout the hospital.
“There were areas of the hospital that were very dark, there was no light whatsoever in some areas where we have patients,” said a doctor who wanted to remain anonymous. “Elevators weren’t working, we couldn’t move patients, we couldn’t release patients, we couldn’t move people down for X-rays, couldn’t get food or water to patients, it was complicated,” said the doctor.
The power was restored on Monday. It’s still not known what caused the electricity to cut out but thieves, who have been known to steal copper wiring, are suspected.
