Though the hospital was completely destroyed, their generator, located in the basement of the building, was operational the entire time and all patients were safely evacuated, says chief nursing officer Susan Bruns.Īfter the twister, the hospital had to be completely rebuilt on a new site and will open, now four years later, in December 2011. hospital to be leveled by a tornado was Phoebe Sumpter Regional Hospital in Americus, Ga., in 2007. " were screaming and looking for loved ones." We had very little flashlights," Sheila Harrington, who was in the hospital at the time, told ABC News.
Once both regular and back-up electricity went out, "there was no light.
JOPLIN MISSOURI TORNADO FACTS WINDOWS
When Sunday's tornado hit the hospital, patients had been moved away from windows and into the corridors, according to the hospital's emergency preparedness plan, says Tina Rockhold, a spokeswoman for Mercy, the health system that St. You have to consider which natural disasters you'll be at risk for and how long batteries will last in the equipment," he adds.
JOPLIN MISSOURI TORNADO FACTS GENERATOR
"Because a generator is basically a large motor, it usually has to be near the exterior wall and have major ventilation, so I imagine that something would happen to it in the case of a tornado. Joseph's Medical Hospital in Maryland, a once-sister hospital to St. I've heard stories of having it in the basement but then it floods, or on the roof and then there's access problems," says Bob Wojtek, manager of security and emergency preparedness at St. "Most hospitals will have some kind of emergency generator power, but placement is tricky. John's emergency preparedness plan was able to protect the vast majority of patients and hospital workers, their critical loss of power raises questions for other medical facilities in Tornado Alley. John's Regional Medical Center's backup generator was sucked out of the building by the twister's 200 mph winds, leaving the hospital without power while workers scrambled to evacuate 183 patients to neighboring hospital facilities, which they did within 90 minutes. The hospital has confirmed that five patients who had been on respirators suffocated when the main power and the backup generator failed during the tornado. May 26, 2011— - When Sunday's tornado ravaged a Joplin, Mo., hospital, it wasn't flying debris or building collapse that accounted for the five patient deaths, it was loss of electricity.
0 kommentar(er)
