Woman Dies After Bronx Power Outage Takes Out Ventilator
37 other patients were in critical condition on ventilators
Sunday, Nov 27, 2011 | Updated 5:31 PM EDT
A woman at a Bronx rehabilitation center died when a power outage struck the facility, cutting off power to the ventilator on which she was surviving, authorities said Sunday.
The outage struck at about 1:20 a.m. in the Gun Hill section of the Bronx, leaving about 4,000 customers in the dark, including the Eastchester Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center, a ConEd spokesperson confirmed.
The back-up generator at the rehabilitation center failed, and FDNY had to take 37 critical-condition patients on ventilators to area hospitals, authorities said.
One woman, 49, died when the ventilator went out, said authorities.
Power was fully restored by 6:30 a.m., said ConEd.
The cause of the outage wasn't immediately clear. The woman who died was not identified.
