Chennai Rain: The Tambaram hospital moved pregnant women, babies and their mothers to the first floor.
Highlights
- 60 patients had to be moved from ground floor to first floor
- In 2015 floods, Tambaram hospital was under almost 5 feet water
- Doctors worried about possible spread of infections within hospital
In south Chennai's Tambaram area, 60 patients - mostly pregnant women, mothers and their newborns - at a government hospital had to be moved to the first floor in the middle of the night after the ground floor was flooded during the
heavy rains. Patients had a harrowing night on Thursday after rains pounded the city and brought normal life to a near standstill for many.
This is the same hospital which was under almost five feet of water during the December 2015 floods, when patients had to be moved out in boats and makeshift stretchers.
This time, however, the hospital seems to be better prepared. On Thursday night, the patients were taken to the first floor in a ramp. When NDTV visited the hospital, the workers were seen sweeping the water out from the corridors and other rooms in the ground floor.
"I was scared. It was raining outside," said Suhasini, a young mother as she nursed her newborn in her arms. The baby boy, now comfortably bundled up in warm, green-coloured clothes, was born through Caesarean section as it poured and thundered outside.
Chennai Rain: Doctors at the Chennai hospital are worried about the possible spread of infections.
As a precautionary measure, for the next month, the hospital will not be accommodating patients in its ground floor rooms. "Even though we did not expect such heavy rains, we planned precautionary measures should be taken to save all these patients (sic). We shifted immediately," said Dr Inbavalli.
The hospital authorities have put sandbags to prevent water from coming in and have placed their power generators five feet above the ground level.
Tambaram is a low-lying area that gets water-logged during heavy rains. Before the northeast monsoon arrived this year, stormwater drains were cleared on priority and the level of the road leading to the hospital was raised to ensure that water from outside doesn't enter the premises when it rains heavily.
During the 2015 floods, Tambaram hospital patients were shifted in boats and makeshift stretchers. (File)
The doctors, however, are worried about the possible spread of diseases and infections within the hospital this season.
In December 2015, when Chennai recorded its worst rains in over a century, medical services too were affected with patients and their families stranded in many hospitals.
More than 10,000 people have taken shelter in over 100 relief camps set up in Chennai and other parts of coastal Tamil Nadu after the northeast monsoon intensified on Thursday.