Several patients of Kurnool General Hospital in Andhra Pradesh had a tough time on Wednesday, after a power cut lasting nearly 14 hours.
The power disruption reportedly occurred at 7pm on Wednesday and was restored only at 9am the following day.
A tree branch fell on a service wire and this caused the power cut, claimed the staff of the hospital.
The Hindu reported that after the hospital staff warned about chances of cats entering and attacking newborns in the darkness, the patients in the gynaecological post-operative ward stayed awake all night because of the tension.
The lack of a generator added to the woes of the patients.
One of the patients, Mabunnisa of Hussainpuram, had delivered twins a week ago. She told the newspaper that fearing the attack from cats, she stayed awake to guard her newborn son.
According to Deccan Chronicle, on the same day, allegedly 20 critically ill patients died after the power cut. However, superintendent of Kurnool General Hospital, Dr J. Veeraswami, has reportedly clarified that the deaths were not due to power outage.
It was reported that no duty doctors, including the resident medical officer, were present in the hospital.
The state health minister, Kamineni Srinivas, has reportedly sought a detailed report on the deaths.
The superintendent of the hospital has alleged that a police outpost set up in the hospital premises was drawing power directly from a high tension line, which led to the power cut.
Transco superintendent engineer G. Bhargava Ramudu told DC reporter D Siva Rami Reddy that a High Tension (HT) connection was given to the hospital and the substation within the hospital took care of internal connections.