A baby was reportedly delivered at the Narsipatnam Area Hospital, Anakapalli district, using candles, cell phone torches and battery lights due to a power cut, late on Wednesday night.
The incident drew sharp criticism from the local people and public in general after the videos of the infant suffering due to the power cut went viral on social media..
Locals said that power cuts had been severe for the past week, with the outages varying from 7 to 10 hours a day. On Wednesday, the patients in the hospital had to bear the brunt as even the generator in the hospital and the inverter in the labour room failed to work reportedly due to some technical snag.
“This has forced us to perform the delivery using candles, cell phone torches and charging lights. Fortunately, it was a normal delivery,” said in charge superintendent of the hospital Dr. David Vasanth Kumar.
The power outages are causing serious trouble to the patients, especially the elderly persons, pregnant women and the newborn babies in the hospital. The videos of a woman bringing out a newborn baby for some fresh air and patient attendants expressing displeasure on the facilities in the hospital have been circulating in social media since Thursday morning. In a video, a woman is seen asking the hospital staff “which hospital on earth delivers a baby using mobile phone lights”.
“Last night after waiting for about two hours without power, we asked the staff about it. They did not have an answer and told us to bring candles. Who will provide us candles past midnight?” questioned a person who admitted his pregnant wife for delivery in the hospital.
Another patient attendant said that this had been the situation for the last three days. “There is no power supply in the hospital. We are forced to use hand fans for our kin under treatment here. Many patients are spending sleepless nights due to the power cuts,” he said.
Several attendants said though there were generators in the hospital, the management was not using them and was also not giving any reason for that.
It is learnt that due to shortage of staff and specialist doctors, all major or critical cases are being referred by the staff to private hospitals in Visakhapatnam or KGH.
Meanwhile, Dr. David Vasanth told The Hindu that the generator had now been repaired and was functioning.
