Power outage: No death of 14 infants at our facility, UPTH debunks claim

The Management of the University of Port-Harcourt Teaching Hospital has reacted to viral reports that 14 infants died at its facility as a result of power outage.

In a statement on Saturday, July 2, 2022, by the acting Public Relations Officer, Elabha Meni, the hospital said no such incident happened at the facility.

While confirming that the hospital experienced a power outage, Meni said the reports on social media that 14 infants died during the blackout period were false, The Punch reports.

He, however, decried the report which he claimed was intended to damage the good image of the institution which is reputed to be the centre of excellence.

The statement reads, “The University of Port-Harcourt Teaching Hospital is an institution, where the world’s best medical standards are practised and maintained. Which also has helped make the institution one of the best medical centres in the South-South and Nigeria at large.

“However, it is quite saddening that certain persons try to tarnish the image of the hospital by spreading false messages and information that are inaccurate.

“Our attention has been drawn to a story of the 14 to 19 babies dying in the hospital, this is not correct. We did not record any infant mortality in our SCBU (inborn and outborn) as a result of our electrical power outage, due to the faulty transformer, during which the standby generator serviced the hospital for the period, with all emergency areas fully powered.

“Surgeries were never cancelled; neither were our services disrupted.

“The management of UPTH frowns seriously at such scandalous social media propaganda that is damaging its image.

“We want the general public to know that we remain committed in our service to humanity.”