NYU Medical Center’s Backup Generator Fails, ‘A Total Evacuation’ Necessary

Paramedics and other medical personnel began evacuating patients from New York University Langone Medical Center due to a power outage that was cause by Hurricane Sandy. After the power outage, the facility’s backup generators also failed, New York City officials said Monday night.

According to ABC News, around 200 patients, roughly 45 of whom are critical care patients, have been moved out of NYU by private ambulance. This was accomplished with the assistance of the New York Fire Department, city officials said.

ABC News’ Chris Murphey reported that there was a long line of ambulances sitting outside of NYU Langone waiting to transport patients to other hospitals in the city.

NYU Medical Center had a total of 800 patients two days ago; some patients were discharged before tonight’s evacuation, which was described by emergency management officials as “a total evacuation.”

According to ABC’s Josh Haskell, 24 ambulances had lined the street, waiting to pick up patients from NYU Lagone Medical Center.

“Every 4 minutes a patient comes out and an empty ambulance pulls up. The lobby of the Medical Center is full of hospital personnel, family members, and patients,” Haskell reports.

The evacuated patients have been moved to a number of area hospitals, and, according to NYU officials, the receiving hospitals would notify the patients’ family members.

Early Monday morning, NYU Langone Medical Center had issued a press release that indicated that the hospital’s emergency preparedness plan had been activated and that there were “no plans to evacuate” at the time.

Not too long after reports of an evacuation at NYU Langone, city officials reported that a second major New York City hospital, Bellevue Hospital, was about to lose backup power due to a generator failure as well.