Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko condemned the cable theft that disrupted the oxygen supply at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital on Monday.
On Monday morning an electronic card was used to access the room where vital pipes providing oxygen to the hospital’s ICU and surgical theatres were housed. Ten metres of wires was cut. It cut off the oxygen supply and medical air supply to the hospital’s intensive care unit. The part that went to the theatre was left intact.
The Progressive Health Forum said what happened was equal to a war crime.
A statement issued by the Gauteng Health Department on Tuesday said clinicians at the facility noticed the flow of oxygen was lower than normal and reported it to the Department of Infrastructure Development, which is responsible for the plant room from where the stolen pipe runs. This led to the discovery that the oxygen supply pipe had been tampered with.
“The people who stole the copper pipe should not just be charged with theft but also with attempted murder. They initially put the lives of 24 patients at risk, 19 of whom were on life support and depended on access to oxygen through artificial ventilation,” said Nkomo-Ralehoko.
For Professor Rudo Mathivha, head of ICU at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, it was a nightmare.
“The staff went into emergency response mode,” she said. They had to ensure that they stabilise each patient. “We had to take the patients off the ventilator and using manual oxygen bags from an oxygen cylinder which is available at each bedside,” she explained.
“All our life-sustaining equipment have sensors that alert us and sets off alarms when oxygen supply and medical air are low or absent,” she said.
Nkomo-Ralehoko said a contractor replaced the stolen pipe, and patients will return to the ICU on Wednesday.
Source: News24, Daily Maverick, The South African, image from Twitter: @bruceybld