This is the moment newborn babies are carried to safety at a hospital that was flooded following heavy rains.
Extreme weather caused flooding in the Mexican municipality of Atizapan de Zaragoza in the Greater Mexico City conurbation on the night of 5th July.
The ground floor of the Dr Salvador Gonzalez Herrejon General Hospital flooded following the heavy rains that hit the State of Mexico.
Footage filmed inside the hospital shows how staff carry incubators with newborn babies up flights of stairs to safety.
Health policy analyst Xavier Tello wrote on Twitter in a post that has since been ‘liked’ 1,900 times: “The astonishing footage of newborns being evacuated in their incubators from a flooded (and unhealthy) Atizapan General Hospital reminds us how fragile Mexico’s health infrastructure is.”
According to mayor Ruth Olivera Nieto, water levels reached over one metre (3.3 ft) in height, putting the electric power supply, on which patients on ventilators rely, at risk.
State governor Alfredo del Mazo wrote on Twitter: “The 17 patients from the Atizapan de Zaragoza ‘Dr Salvador Gonzalez Herrejon’ General Hospital who were in the facilities’ affected area are well and will be transferred to other healthcare units.”
Civil Defence personnel, firemen and water service workers helped in the cleaning and draining efforts to get the hospital fully back up and running.
In addition to flooding the hospital, the heavy rains caused the municipality’s sewer system to collapse and the banks of the Chamacuero River to burst.
