Vellore: Panic spread in a southern Indian hospital’s surgical ward after an elderly woman unplugged the oxygen supply to recharge her phone.
However, no major damage was done to patients in the Government Vellore Medical College Hospital in Vellore, Tamil Nadu.
The Times of India reported that as soon as the woman unplugged the port, oxygen started coming out with a huge sound. This created a situation of near panic on the ground floor ward, with the attendants and visitors running out of the hospital.
The noise prompted a team of doctors and personnel, including the Dean, Doctor R Shanthi Malar, to rush to the spot, only to discover that the elderly woman had mistaken the port on the oxygen supply line as an electric sachet, and took it out in order to recharge her phone.
“We disconnected the line that was damaged by the elderly woman. We brought the patients back to the wards after an hour, after explaining to them what had happened,” Malar said.
A hospital official said people left the ward out of fear, but returned realizing there was no problem.