A baby was born late Monday night during a power outage at a Los Angeles hospital, while other critically ill patients on ventilators were evacuated due to the outage.
The baby — whose name and gender have not been released by hospital officials — was born after the hospital’s emergency generator went out.
Staff used flashlights aimed directly at the ceiling to fill the room with light during labor as the mother pushed, a hospital communications officer said.
The mother and newborn are safe and were later transferred from the hospital.
While nurses and doctors helped deliver the child, first responders tried to evacuate other patients from the facility.
About thirty patients were found to need to be moved first. Many of them required ventilators, officials told local media.
A baby was born late Monday night during a power outage at a Los Angeles hospital, while other critically ill patients on ventilators were evacuated due to the outage
A patient is evacuated from White Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles
According to John Raffoul, president of Adventist Health White Memorial, the hospital’s main power first went out around 3 a.m. Monday.
That outage may have been related to Tropical Storm Hilary, which lashed southern California with heavy rain and strong winds Sunday through Monday morning.
Raffoul said the hospital has three generators that should provide power for three days. All three went out at the end of Monday.
More than 200 patients — including babies in the neonatal intensive care unit and patients in the Specialty Care Center — were evacuated during the outage.
Raffoul told the media at a press conference on Tuesday morning that both the mother and baby are doing well and have been transferred to another location.
DailyMail.com reached out to White Memorial Hospital representatives for additional information, but had not heard back at time of publication.
From the NICU and Specialty Care Center, patients in the ICU, emergency room, and obstetrics and gynecology units were also moved due to the outage.
Crews were forced to carry patients down the stairs after the power outage also resulted in elevators not working.
Power in other buildings on the White Memorial campus would function.
Emergency responders rushed to evacuate the patients from the facility, citing those on ventilators as top priorities requiring immediate relocation.
“All patients are safe and an emergency generator has been ordered from the City of Industry, which will be here shortly,” he added.
According to John Raffoul (pictured), president of Adventist Health White Memorial, the hospital’s main power first went out around 3 a.m. Monday.
A video on TikTok appeared to show the inside of the hospital after it plunged into darkness
This is what the hospital looks like during the day with the lights on
About twenty ambulances were on their way to help remove sixty geriatric patients from the hospital and to other facilities.
A total of 241 patients were admitted to the hospital building at the time of the power outage.
The LA Fire Department said they were assisting with the evacuation and working with hospital staff to identify priority patients. About 200 firefighters were on their way to the hospital.
Some people were reportedly trapped in the elevators as the entire building was without power.
A spokesperson for the LAFD said: ‘Due to the power outage, firefighters are having to physically transport patients from the upper floors to the waiting ambulances.
The department confirmed that there were initially 11 patients before releasing a later update to increase the number to 30.
In the later update, the LAFD added, “Most of the patients in the facility are not critical and can be moved to another building on campus.”
The department also asked that all roads be kept clear to accommodate ambulance traffic.
About 20 ambulances are on their way to help remove 60 geriatric patients from the hospital (file image of a California ambulance)
The cause of the power outage is not yet known and whether the emergency incident was related to Tropical Storm Hilary, the violent weather that wreaked havoc in the region on Monday.
A video on TikTok appeared to show the inside of the hospital after it plunged into darkness.