ABHA: Patients at the Abha General Hospital were evacuated yesterday following an electric short circuit, which caused cables to go on fire.
Those evacuated included 20 newborn babies and 23 in-bed patients who were taken to nearby hospitals. An official hospital spokesman said the evacuation took over four hours while electricians worked on restoring electricity.
Patients and parents of newborn babies expressed concern at having to switch hospitals.
An official spokesman from Abha Civil Defense said the short circuit might have occurred due to an overload on an old underground cable. “No human casualties or deaths happened as a result of the short circuit,” he said.
Abdullah ibn Al-Wadie, general manager of Health Affairs in Abha, supervised the evacuation of babies from the nursery to other hospitals, including two to the Saudi German Hospital, three to Khamis Mushayt Birth and Child Hospital, and 15 to Asir Central Hospital.
“All of the children are well,” he added. He added that the evacuation was carried out under the hospital’s emergency evacuation plan and that all nurses and doctors were summoned to assist.
Meanwhile, residents in Asir are waiting for the building of the Abha General Hospital to be completed. The 200-bed hospital is being built at a cost of SR100 million.
