Four patients including a minor child who were on ventilators in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Neurosurgery Ward of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Canter, lost their lives because the ventilators stopped functioning due to what hospital sources said prolonged power failure on Tuesday.
The deceased have been identified as Jaffar (60) Noman, (8), Haji Mohammad (60), and Saqib (18). Hospital sources said that the power breakdown lasted for 12 to 14 hours. They said although the hospital has four standby generators for catering to the needs of entire facility but the standby generators facility ran out of fuel and the management could not purchase more fuel due to financial constraints.
Sources disclosed that the JPMC administration had also sent three to four letters to Sindh health department, seeking funds to meet emergency needs, but the health department failed to provide funds for last several weeks. Meanwhile, KESC has claimed that there was no interruption in power supply to Jinnah Hospital. However, there had been some internal issues with the JPMC wiring and electricity infrastructure which were duly intimated to the hospital's concerned staff.