Overview
- At around 10 pm Monday, the polytrauma ICU at Jaipur’s SMS Hospital flooded, prompting the transfer of 14 critically ill patients, including 10 on ventilators, to other wards.
- Hospital officials said a decades-old buried pipeline corroded and failed under the trauma centre, with Public Works Department staff locating and fixing the breach within about an hour.
- Several inches of water in the ICU created acute electrical-safety risks around life-support equipment, but no injuries were reported.
- The ward was cleaned and fumigated on Tuesday, and officials said new patient admissions would resume the following day.
- Rajasthan principal secretary Gayatri Rathore inspected the facility, directed strict action for any negligence, and ordered technical checks across ICUs, with the episode spotlighting wider infrastructure concerns raised recently by Indore’s water contamination crisis.