Burst pipe floods hospital operating rooms
Nearly 100 urgent cases were cancelled and rescheduled while crisis was being dealt with
A full complement of 18 to 20 operating rooms at Vancouver General Hospital will finally be back in use Thursday after a burst water sprinkler pipe caused unsterile water to leak into multiple operating rooms through lights and air vents while surgeries were taking place.
Postmedia has learned that midway through long, complex cancer and other urgent surgeries on Oct. 30, medical teams noticed water dripping from a handful of operating room (OR) ceilings, potentially compromising the safety of patients undergoing surgery. Operations in progress were completed, but half the ORs were then closed, resulting in the cancellation and rescheduling of nearly 100 urgent and life-saving cases.
Hospital officials confirmed the crisis Wednesday.
A mishap during construction work on the third floor of the hospital was what led to the burst pipe, causing water to leak through a mechanical subfloor just above all the ORs on the second floor of the Jim Pattison Pavilion. The water then dripped through light and ventilation shafts into the ORs, but fortuitously, not directly onto anesthetized patients undergoing surgery.
It was 11 a.m. and several operations — some of them five hours in duration and longer — were in progress, with numerous patients in the holding area. Surgeons and infection control experts made immediate assessments on whether it was safe to continue the operations.
In one case, a surgeon decided it was not safe to continue working in the leaking OR, so the patient on the table was temporarily closed up with sutures and the medical team moved the patient to an adjacent room where the allday operation resumed.
One cardiac case that was in a critical stage proceeded in the leaking room as hospital staff sealed off the sterile area with plastic.
Dr. Marcel Dvorak, a spinal surgeon who is associate medical director at Vancouver Coastal Health, said multiple ORs had “active water” dripping into the peripheral areas of the ORs. Nurses and other hospital staff “flew into action” using blankets to soak up water on the floors and suctioning water off equipment and surfaces. Tens of millions of dollars worth of electronic and sterile surgical equipment had to be protected and sealed with plastic.
In the 10 days since the leak, dehumidifiers have been drying out the moisture and new drywall has been installed.
There were no “untoward” incidents involving patients developing infections or other surgical complications as a result of the mishap, according to hospital administrators. The event was disclosed to all patients affected.
In one OR, the operation continued without incident for a number of hours, and in another, a patient was moved while under anesthetic “because it was deemed to be the safest thing to do.” Several rooms were considered “mechanically safe” with electrical and humidity systems intact so operations in progress were completed, but 13 other cases that were scheduled for that day were cancelled, Dvorak said.