The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

ELDERLY residents at two New Providence care homes were left frightened, overheated and without parts of their normal medical routine during recent power outages, forcing staff to move bedridden patients in the dark and exposing the human cost of unreliable electricity service.

At Pat’s Senior Home, which accommodates more than 50 residents, staff placed some elderly people on the porch to escape the heat and brought in extra workers to move residents from their rooms after the power failed.

Patricia Moxey, the home’s owner, said some residents became so frightened that they wet themselves, while others screamed when the lights went out.

“Everything was in darkness and they screaming and trying to get them out,” Ms Moxey said. “They were miserable in the heat.”

About 13 residents are bedridden, and some have no legs, she said.

“Some of them just started to sit up because they were too hot. And earlier that morning we brought a lot (of them) on the porch.”

The home has a generator, but it ran out of fuel during last Thursday’s island-wide blackout after consuming five gallons of diesel.

The outage began at about 1.45am and lasted seven hours or longer in some communities, leaving thousands of residents without electricity overnight.

Ms Moxey said the frequency of the outages made it difficult to anticipate how much fuel would be needed.

“Sometimes you're not keeping check of the amount of diesel that you putting in there because you're not expecting the amount of outages that we had, and still having,” she said.

She said the home depends on the generator to keep residents comfortable but is now facing higher fuel costs.

“Also when we find that diesel is at its highest ever, and some of the service stations have even went up on their prices,” Ms Moxey said. “I think they're taking advantage of the situation.”

She is considering buying a second generator, although she said it would cost thousands of dollars.

The home also suffered damage to two refrigerators, security cameras and a television during multiple outages last week.

Ms Moxey called on the government to do everything possible to restore reliable electricity service.

Residents at Good Samaritan Home faced similar disruption.

Serenity Cash, a worker at the home, said staff could not take residents’ blood pressure during the outage, while medication that had to be refrigerated was also affected.

The home accommodates 23 residents, including people who are bedridden, paralysed, suffer seizures or have high blood pressure.

Neither home had residents dependent on oxygen machines during the outages.

Ms Cash said workers tried to keep residents calm while also enduring the heat. The home is now planning to purchase a generator.

“We don't let it be known that it's frustrating because at the end of the day, they are patients, and that's our job,” she said.