18 ICU patients die as flood cuts off power in India hospital

Body of a patient who according to local media died after a ventilator stopped working (C)AFP-JIJI

Severe floods that have hit the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu killed 18 hospital patients this week after rainwaters knocked out generators and switched off ventilators, officials said on Saturday. State authorities were investigating complaints of negligence by officials at MIOT International hospital in the state capital of Chennai, which is reeling from massive floods. The 18 patients were in the intensive care unit when a power outage affected ventilators in the hospital, leading to their deaths over the past two to three days, said state Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan. He said that floodwaters entered the room with the generators, cutting off power to the building and switching off the ventilators. More than 280 people have died due to the floods in Chennai, a city of 9.6 million, and nearby districts, including several who were killed due to electric shocks from power distribution boxes that had been submerged by floodwaters. Authorities have turned off power supplies in some areas to prevent accidental deaths, the Associated Press reports.
Army soldiers using boats have rescued thousands of residents marooned in high-rise buildings and launched massive relief operations to provide food and medicine. Although floodwaters have begun to recede, vast swaths of Chennai and neighbouring districts were still under 2.5m to 3m of water, with tens of thousands of people in state-run relief camps.
Radhakrishnan said on Saturday that while the immediate rescue operations were tapering off, the main focus of the administration in the coming days will be to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. In many areas, sewage drains have overflowed due to the rising floodwaters, posing a health hazard for residents who have had to wade through the water, Radhakrishnan said. Sanitation workers have begun spraying insecticide in many places to prevent the spread of vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue due to the stagnant water collected in large parts of the city.
India's main monsoon season runs from June through September, but for Chennai and the rest of the south-eastern coast, the heaviest rainfall is from October to December, also called the retreating monsoon. This year's deluge - which experts linked to the El Niño weather pattern, when the waters of the Pacific Ocean get warmer than usual - caught Chennai completely unprepared.