Premature babies evacuated from Sydney hospital ward after partial ceiling collapse
PREMATURE babies in the neonatal intensive care unit at a Sydney hospital were evacuated from their ward after part of the ceiling collapsed yesterday.
Southern Courier
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PREMATURE babies in the neonatal intensive care unit at Royal Hospital for Women in Randwick, some as small as 500g and on ventilators, were evacuated from the ward after part of the ceiling collapsed yesterday.
“There was a problem with the ceiling and the patients were moved to an alternate location in the hospital, where they are being safely looked after,” a South East Local Health District spokeswoman said.
The health district spokeswoman said neither patients nor staff had been affected by the incident.
An employee in the affected ward claimed some staff members had been showered with urine and waste from a plumbing breakage, which could allegedly contain dangerous cytotoxic chemicals, from the oncology ward upstairs.
It is understood some staff members were forced to change their scrubs after the explosion.
“Now the staff that got rained on will probably have to get extensive health checks for hepatitis a and chemo exposure,” the employee said.
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“How can the district tell the staff they aren’t affected yet? They were rained on with excrement, there’s cytotoxic waste in urine – it doesn’t present itself immediately.”
The employee said the nurses and other staff had been “amazing” throughout the incident.
“They kept it all together and kept the parents calm,” they said.
The health district has been contacted about the status of an imminent investigation.