Iranians have been reporting daily, prolonged, and unannounced power cuts since early May, leading to widespread difficulties. Patients are particularly at risk without life-saving medical devices during Iran blackouts; Both patients who are hospitalized at home and need medical devices connected to electricity, and patients who are hospitalized.
Iranian officials said the blackouts will continue for at least a month.
The outages have caused plenty of disruption for most Iranians, who are suffering from high temperatures and the continuing spread of Covid-19.
Power outages and care at home
Iran has been hit by the fifth wave of Covid-19 due to an outbreak of the Delta variant.
On July 6, it was announced that the number of outpatients at Masih Daneshvari Hospital has doubled. The same is true of other hospitals.
While there are no more beds in hospitals, many Covid-19 patients recuperating at home use small ventilators and do not have backup generators. Furthermore, there are thousands of other patients across the country who are hospitalized at their homes and their lives depend on electrical devices; They need constant electricity in their homes to survive. These patients have been in danger of death in the past days with each power outage, and the mental health of those around them has also been damaged.
Although no statistics have been released on the deaths of inpatients during the recent power outages, videos posted online show that patients and their families are in dire conditions.
However, the Ministry of Energy has stated that it has no responsibility for patients who are hospitalized at home during Iran blackouts.
Last year, an official at the Power Generation and Transmission Company said in a TV interview, “The company has no responsibility for people who are at home and consume oxygen. Every patient must have emergency electrical equipment.”
Emergency in hospitals during Iran blackouts
Power outages have also caused serious problems for hospitalized patients and endangered their health.
This is while Hossein Sabouri, the Head of the Greater Tehran Power Distribution Company had said before that the electricity would not be cut off “under any circumstances” in hospitals.
Government officials claim that medical centers have emergency power systems. But it takes some time to connect the emergency power and the power outage significantly decreases the oxygen pressure.
An Iranian doctor has recently revealed that patients on ventilators have passed away during Tehran’s blackouts.
Dr. Mohammad-Reza Hashemian told to the state-run ROKNA news agency that between the time electricity goes out and the emergency power kicks in, hospital patients on ventilators face life-threatening conditions and have even died.
Dr. Hashemian, an ICU specialist at Tehran’s Masih Daneshvari Hospital, posted a video on his Instagram account showing patients on ventilators in critical condition during Iran blackouts.
The voice heard in the video which shows three patients in the dark CCU rooms of an Iranian hospital says patients are “expiring” because the emergency power has not been connected. The video, which has been circulating on social media, has caused outrage.
“This time a video was published but we have faced these kinds of scenes many times in the past,” Dr. Hashemian said.
“When oxygen is cut off, some ventilators stop working correctly. Some ventilators which work with turbines become completely useless. This has a very bad effect on patients. When this happens, sometimes patients suffering from COVID-19 die before healthcare workers can fix the oxygen. We have said this many times but unfortunately, the Ministry of Health refuses to publish the details surrounding the deaths of COVID-19 patients,” Dr. Hashemian added.
He also said the Health Ministry had bought ventilators without coordinating or checking with relevant experts.
“A ventilator is not like a TV which works without any problems after being connected to an emergency power source. The quality of the ventilator drops and oxygen pressure decreases leading to the death of patients,” he said.
When asked what percent of COVID-19 patients in Iran had died during blackouts he said he did not know and that the Ministry of Health had not announced the detailed reason behind the death of COVID-19 patients.
“This is part of the classified secrets of the Health Ministry which will not be announced under any circumstances,” Dr. Hashemian added.
Officials denying the truth about Iran blackouts
Not only do regime officials have no answer for what has happened in recent days and months, but they have also denied the power outages of medical centers and hospitals in general.
