San Juan de Dios Hospital in Cali relocates neonatal area to parking lot following structural collapse

Cali, Colombia.– A partial collapse in the infrastructure of the San Juan de Dios Hospital, located in downtown Cali, forced medical and nursing staff to emergency evacuate newborns from the neonatal area and move them preventively to the institution’s parking lot.

Given the situation, medical staff improvised a care space in the parking area, where incubators and mobile cribs were placed to continue providing assistance to the neonates while the conditions of the structure were being evaluated.

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Images released after the incident show nurses and medical staff attending to and monitoring newborns in the parking lot, amidst the assessment and emergency response efforts.

Risk management teams and relief agencies, including firefighters, arrived at the healthcare center to verify the damage caused by the partial collapse and determine if there are additional risks for patients, family members, and workers.

Hospital representatives and local health authorities indicated that the evacuation was adopted as a preventive measure, given the possibility that further deterioration of the structure could occur.

As evaluations progress, the transfer of the most critically ill patients to other centers within Cali’s public hospital network is being considered, while awaiting the consolidation of the official report on material damage and the hospital’s safety conditions.