Hundreds evacuated from L.A. hospital that lost power. A baby was born during the crisis
Hundreds of patients, including some infants and others in critical care, had to be evacuated early Tuesday from Adventist Health White Memorial Hospital in Boyle Heights after part of the complex lost power, authorities said.
The patients from the neonatal intensive care unit, obstetrics unit and others in the hospital’s Specialty Care Center were transferred to other facilities on the campus and to other area hospitals, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. One woman gave birth during the evacuation, a hospital official said.
Firefighters responded to the outage at the hospital at about 11:45 p.m. Monday, according to an alert from the Fire Department. Some of the evacuated patients were on ventilators.
The outage hit only the hospital’s Specialty Care Center and affected 241 patients, the department said. It was not immediately clear what caused the power cut, which came hours after Hilary, the first tropical storm to hit L.A. in 84 years, hopscotched across Southern California.
Tropical Storm Hilary left most of Southern California relatively unscathed. But Coachella Valley residents must deal with messy aftermath.
LAFD Chief Kristen Crowley said during a Tuesday news conference that 28 critical care patients were taken to another facility after the hospital’s main six-story building lost power. Firefighters also assisted with the remaining 213 noncritical patients.
“Our challenges were there’s no power, there’s no elevators,” she said. “Our firefighters, paramedics and fire personnel came in, identified the critical patients, moved them as quickly as possible and then had to be very innovative in how we were going to move these critical patients as well as the noncritical patients.”
Firefighters could only use stairwells to relocate patients since the elevators weren’t working, said Margaret Stewart, a Fire Department spokesperson. Stair chairs and backboards were used to move patients. Eventually, first responders were able to access a single operational elevator in one portion of the building.
A total of 104 Fire Department personnel responded to the scene, Crowley said.
The hospital’s main power first went out about 3 a.m. Monday during “the height” of Tropical Storm Hilary, John Raffoul, president of Adventist Health White Memorial, said during the news conference. White Memorial has three generators, which are supposed to be able to provide electricity for three days, but they went out by the end of the day.
By 1 a.m. Tuesday, the hospital’s main building was without power, Raffoul said, though adjacent buildings still had electricity. The exact cause of the outages has not been determined.
Hilary, the first tropical storm to hit Los Angeles in 84 years, was full of surprises, battering some Southern California areas but sparing others.
The generators were purchased in 2008 when the hospital was built and have been regularly tested since, according to Raffoul, who said all patient care areas are powered by generators. All patients are safe, and those who remain at White Memorial are being moved to the South Tower, which still has power.
The baby that was born during the evacuation and its mother are safe and have been transferred out of the hospital, Raffoul said.
“All patients are safe and an emergency generator was ordered from the city of Industry and will be here shortly,” he added.
The baby was born after the emergency generator went out; staffers with flashlights shined them up at the ceiling, so there was plenty of light, said Adventist Health marketing and communication manager Grace Hauser, who couldn’t provide more information about the birth or the baby.
The Specialty Care Center houses the hospital’s neonatal, obstetrics and gynecology units as well as patients undergoing rehabilitation.
For patients on ventilators, those whose machines had a battery reserve were put onto gurneys for transport; staff used bag valve mask ventilators to assist other patients’ breathing during the evacuation, LAFD spokesperson Stewart said.
As of 9:30 a.m., 20 patients still had to be moved from the hospital, Stewart said.
Mayor Karen Bass commended the action from firefighters and healthcare workers who assisted in the evacuation.
“The outage is ongoing and actions are being taken to ensure the safety of all patients and to restore power,” she said in a statement. “Many years ago, I worked at White Memorial in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. A power outage risks the lives of all of those babies — and also the rest of the patients in critical care whose lives depend on respirators, ventilators and other critical life-sustaining equipment. Angelenos deserve a thorough examination of this incident.”
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