Power restored at UMC but some ICU patients still diverted after outage

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - The temporary visitor restrictions have been lifted and phones are back up at UMC and power has been restored after a power outage Tuesday morning that last around five and a half hours.

UMC remains on local and regional diversion. A temporary solution is in place, and UMC staff has taken conservative measures until the process in finalized.

The hospital sent out a notice just after 7:30 a.m.

The hospital says it was testing one of its power generators earlier this morning and tried to switch back to regular power, which caused the internal power failure. Because of that, power was lost to the main hospital building. That switch is still broken, interrupting their generator systems at this time.

Chief Medical Officer of UMC, Dr. Mike Ragain, said 24 patients in burn and cardiac ICU units were moved to other units with power and will continue to be there until the switch is replaced.

Dr.  Ragain said his team handled everything very well and other patients that didn’t need urgent moving around also doing well tonight.

“If you have a pump pumping IV fluids, you can run that with gravity but if someone needs a ventilator, those are the patients that need regular power and the ones that we had to move to other areas.”

Dr. Ragain wants to thank all UMC doctors, nurses and staff for their quick and smart actions during the power outage. He also sends thanks The City of Lubbock and Lubbock Fire Department, which both offered their services.

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