Feb 2004
No. 9
The 'Blackout of 2003': Lights out, but the show must go on!
by Alexander Allori, MDMPH; Dept of Surgery, NY, NY
I was (of course) at work when it happened, and already post-call and
tired at the time. The power outage occurred at about a quarter past
4pm EST. The hospital switched pretty quickly to backup generator
power, which keeps most lights and 'indespensable services' (life
support, cardiac monitors, etc.) up-n-running. However, air
conditioning is not considered an 'indespensible service,' except in the
O.R., so the whole hospital became insufferably warm. There was only
one functioning elevator, which soon became too terribly slow from the
excess demand to actually consider using -- consequently, I had to climb
up and down 13 flights of stairs to check on various patients. Needless
to say, it wasn't long before my white coat came off and I changed into
scrubs!
Some important medical services (e.g., dialysis) were interrupted, but
thankfully we didn't have to hand-bag any patients ourselves.
A state of high alert was called into effect, and we weren't allowed to
leave until the authorities figured out what was going on. It was
approximately midnight when I left the hospital. At first, I figured I
should just stay there, but I was thinking, "Yaknow, I'd REALLY like to
go home and eat and take a nice cold shower and brush my teeth and
change my clothes before starting tomorrow's day of work." So I walked
toward the bus stop (the subways, being electric, didn't work); I
stopped along the way with a colleague of mine to get a cold beer and
defervesce from the craziness of the day. (There was quite an eclectic
crowd in that bar.) Then we took the bus home, which was like a can of
sardines only more crowded. It took about 45 minutes to travel from the
Upper East Side back to Union Square, where I live. The ride was a
sight to see in and of itself: Pitch black, no street lamps or traffic
lights, people frolicking on the street with glow sticks, flashlights
and candles, sitting on the sidewalk in little pow-wow circles, drinking
beer from bottles and champagne from crystal flutes, smiles on
everybody's faces. A lot like the scenes from any Apocalypse movie,
minus the bonfires ;-)
When I finally got home, I had to climb 22 flights of stairs, using my
medical penlight to light my path. The air conditioning in the
apartment building was out, too, so it was *H*O*T*. I finally arrived
at my door, hot, sticky, and yearning for a cold shower -- when to my
horror, I turn the faucet on and NO water comes out! Yep, I had
forgotten that the water pumps were electric, too.
Long story short, I had to brush my teeth and bathe in the bathroom sink
using bottled water (which was thankfully still chilled). Then I left
the house at 5am to trek back to the hospital. We four surgical
residents were the only house staff who made it back into the hospital
on time, and once there, we covered the surgical floor, E.R. trauma,
emergency operative cases, as well as the essentials for the medical
floor patients (e.g., fluid management, nebulizer treatments, etc.)
until the medical house staff arrived in the early afternoon.
The power was out the whole day. Because all elective cases were
cancelled, the day was mainly floor work, and things were pretty much
secure and tucked-in by early afternoon. When our evening relief
arrived, we were allowed to leave but were placed on home-call status
(meaning that we would be paged to return to the hospital in case
anything else happened). I fully expected to have to return that night:
Two other large hospitals in Manhattan reported that their emergency
generators gave out and that they had no functioning O.R.s anymore. But
thank goodness everything went smoothly....
I returned to my stifling, waterless apartment and lay simmering on my
bed, stripped to my boxers. The power returned around 11pm that night.
Water pressure mercifully restored, I was finally able to take a nice,
refreshing, freezing-cold shower! Ahhhh... It took awhile until my
antiquated air-conditioning system (the water-chilled ones like Wiess
used to have) was able to return my apartment to a comfortable
temperature. But I was just happy to be home.