Power Outage


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Middle East » Iraq » West » Al Asad Airbase
June 13th 2008
Published: June 20th 2008
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A power outage today. The hospital is new to Al Asad. It was built last year. It has all of the modern hospital equipment. We have x-Ray, CT Scanner, Pharmacy, Laboratory, Blood Bank, ER, OR, and Dental Clinic. The hospital is wired with 110 volt and 220 volt power. Many instruments have been lost by plugging into the wrong outlet. I work in the Hardstand, which is the old Saddam hospital. The Hardstand is largely offices and very little clinical operation. Because it was an original building, it is wired with 220 volt only. The base lost power which is 220 volt (220 volt is the standard overseas). All of our computer systems went down for a short while. We had to run a 110 volt line from the hospital to get the computers and communication up. The 110 is run by 2 huge generators so we will never be without essential power. Thank goodness we have both power sources. Patients will hopefully never be in jeopardy with the system we have. Mean while we will sit in the heat of a stuffy building, in the dark, working to the glow of a dim laptop screen running on battery power. If I can do that - I can do anything.

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21st June 2008

No question in my mind, you CAN do anything. If you faulter, just let us know and I'll fly the whole team over for a meeting and we'll work it out!

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