The Head of Resuscitation at the QSUT, Krenar Lilaj, has reacted after the unprecedented event that occurred at the "Mother Teresa" Hospital Center, where last evening the electricity was turned off for about 40 minutes.
The country's central hospital was engulfed in darkness, while the UPS system and generators were found not to have been fully functional to withstand the duration of the power outage.
In a statement to the media, Lilaj said that no intubated patient's life was in danger, as medical staff intervened in time by transferring them to another ward.
He said that the death of convicted prisoner Mihal Mërkuri did not occur because of the incident in question, but because it was serious.
"My duty as a doctor is to protect the lives of the sick and the staff I lead. In every situation, we are in the protection of the patients. This question does not concern me (turning off the lights). Regarding the death of a convict, his condition was serious. His condition was serious. Not only last night, but serious since his arrival, the day he was admitted, to undergo a surgical intervention. All the data is substantiated in the patient's file. He suffered from cirrhosis. He was treated surgically. The patient passed away at 04:33 minutes. Meanwhile, the power supply was restored at 21:42 minutes. The back-up equipment is consumed. In conditions when you have 9 patients who are being treated with mechanical ventilation, even the power cut occurs at a certain moment, the decision they made to transfer them was to avoid the simultaneous decline in the functioning of these equipment, which would cause problems in transporting patients simultaneously. I cannot say how much or how long these devices operate, but they last for 4-5 hours. Such incidents with power outages have been a burden for many years. A similar event occurred 1-2 years ago, which was successfully overcome by our side. Just like last night, where the fact that we did not have any loss of life in such a situation makes us deserve something more from you journalists in the first place, as this shows that our service is ready in such situations. We have safety measures to keep the sick alive, even if the lights go out during the operation", he said.
