The obstetrics and post-surgery floor of the Flin Flon General Hospital has reopened following a mishap.
A burst water pipe was noticed on Dec. 8, causing the evacuation of the fifth floor. Patients were relocated to elsewhere in the building.
The obstetrics area resumed normal operations on the evening of Dec. 12. The surgical beds were also reopened at that time.
The nursery area was expected to reopen last week.
Glenn Hildebrand, spokesperson for the Northern Health Region, said there was no firm dollar amount available in terms of damage.
Once a figure is known, it will be passed on to The Reminder, he said.
Hildebrand previously said the water pipe burst on Dec. 8 and was noticed at about 7 a.m. that day.
By then, he said, “gallons and gallons of water” had escaped, finding its way from the ceiling down to the floor of the hospital’s fifth storey.
The line that burst was a standard water pipe that was not connected to any medical devices.
A team of professionals, complete with respirators, was to be brought in to perform the clean-up.
As a precaution, people who were in the immediate area of the burst pipe were to be asked to monitor themselves for symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breathe, headache, fatigue and sinus pain.
The hospital’s infection-control protocol kicks in as soon as a single ceiling tile is disturbed. In this case, a number of tiles were disturbed.
