Power outage forces GIMS doctors to attend on NICU patients with mobile phone torch lights

KALABURAGI: Doctors at the Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) were forced to treat newborn infants at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) under the light of mobile phone torches when there as a power outage in the block on Tuesday night. The outage caused anxiety among the parents of the children.

The power outage occurred around 10 pm on Tuesday and anxious parents and relatives of newborns planned to take them outside the hospital. However, the hospital authorities managed to convince them that power would be restored soon.

During the dark, doctors attended on children with mobile phone torches, but luckily, there was no medical emergency during that time. Power supply was restored after nearly two hours.

“There was some loud sound following which there was a power outage. The hospital authorities lodged a complaint and after some time, power supply was restored. When it was dark, the doctors attendend on patients with mobile phone torches. There was a generator in the NICU, but ther was no power in the maternity ward”, said Mahesh of Chincholi taluk, whose child was admitted in the NICU.

“Poor people come to GIMS as it is well equipped, but what happened on Tuesday night is condemnable. Parents were anxious and were even planning to take their children out of the hospital. Earlier, there have been incidents of child theft and improper supply of drinking water. It is a matter of shame that Medical Education minister Sharan Prakash Patil, who hails from the district, has not been able to set things right at GIMS”, said M S Patil, a resident of Kalaburagi.