Yesterday, I was assisting in a hernia repair surgery, when the power went out. This happened twice while the patient was on the operating table. For some reason the backup generators were not working, so the OR was completely dark. For a second I almost panicked for the sake of the patient whose belly was wide open, but then a tiny light emerged from the head of the operating table. The anaesthesiologist was providing a makeshift flashlight using his intubation instrument, which has a light that shines down a patient’s throat when inserting a tube. Genious. But not enough light to finish the surgery. Luckily the lights came back on momentarily, and we completed the surgery. Dr. Pott, the general surgeon, wisely cancelled the next case, which was a cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal). However, the ObGyn doctor needed to do a c-section. As we were scrubbing in, the lights went out again. But this time, they didn’t come back on. Luckily, no incision had been made! Again the anaesthesiologist shed a tiny beam of light so we could at least see the door. I think they had to send the patient by ambulance to the hospital in Belmopan.

--Tina