In an Afghan children's hospital, power cuts decide life or death

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.afgha.com/?af=article&sid=47908

A newborn with septicemia, the rims of his eyes blackened, breathes with difficulty in an incubator. He will only survive if the Indira Gandhi hospital doesn't have one of its regular power cuts, which have already killed more than one child.

"The life of these children depends on electricity. If it stops, their lives stop," said 35-year-old doctor Jalil Wardak, who has practised pediatrics for 12 years at the hospital for 40 dollars a month, and 150 dollars for private consultations.

The Indira Gandhi children's hospital was opened using Indian donations in Afghanistan in 1972, and has 300 beds and modern incubators.

But although the hospital also has two generators to compensate for the frequent power outages in the capital, it sometimes doesn't have enough fuel to make them work, according to the doctors.

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[Mizmoon]

1. not enough fuel for the generators?

in an oil producing nation?

Something is wrong here. Very, very wrong.