http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/news/story.html?in_review_id=161397

Take a look at life in London due to a Y2K "fix". They were compliant..had everything checked...100,000 homes are now dark! oops!

-- ben (bent@premier1.net), August 07, 1999

Answers

Link <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), August 07, 1999.

I am furious!!! Why can't they put power back on the people whose life depends on it first!! home dialysis patients can't go for very long periods of time without dialysis. 48 hours could mean death for them for certain. I hope and pray these people are able to get their treatment in time. Hopefully at a clinic or hospital that has power.

She also complained of rudeness by people on the hotline. She claimed that when she pointed out to an operator that people on ventilators or home dialysis need electricity to live, the voice on the other end of the line allegedly told her: "Well, they'll be dead then."

I guess this is what we have to used to...big sigh....

-- shellie (shellie01@hotmail.com), August 07, 1999.

Come on Shellie, don't be a goofus. Anyone with a handicap severe enough to require life sustaining equipment at home must understnad the risks and maintain a back up system and not rely on the power company. They cannot guarantee power delivery anytime. To place yourself or a family member at this grave a risk is irresponsible and stupid. Power companies are not in the life sustaining business, hospitals and health care facilities are and they have back up systems. Get with it people!

-- Jake (Jake@GetReal.com), August 08, 1999.

Anyone still unconvinced? Systemic failure would be bad enough, but add in infectious data, and we may well approach Infomagic before this is all over.

Heads will roll for withholding preparation advice and guidelines for the general populace until it was too late to avoid panic and chaos.

I have not yet checked out the article, but the senerio will be played out thousands, if not millions, of times in the next 12 months.

Again my humble opinion! But I have been batting nearly a thousand so far. I pray my average slumps dramatically soon.

A view from the bottom, where survival is an every day thing!!

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), August 08, 1999.

Also see yesterday's thread on this story:

Hot off the press

-- RUOK (RUOK@yesiam.com), August 08, 1999.

Jake, I work with patients with cronic renal failure every single day. I do hemodialysis in a clinic. But I do know that a third of our patients are on home dialysis and no they do not have any sort of backup plan. Most of the time they can not keep there access clean enough to keep out infection for one and there is sooo much more to home dialysis than one would think. Alot of these patients have so much wrong with them that they would not even think of having a back up plan. The machine they use works while they sleep to pull the water out of them and half of them do not know how to even run the system. They have a family member hook them up to it and all.

If the patients have to go to a hospital to have the treatment done (that's if they have one available with power) they will be so over crowded trying to get all the people in for treatment. A single treatment takes 4 hours per person.

I agree they should have a backup plan but how many people do you know that actually does? We have become so damn dependent on electricity that we don't think twice about ever having to live without it.

-- shellie (shellie01@hotmail.com), August 08, 1999.

To shellie

Do you have any information on any contingency plans for Dialysis Centers. I know they will be in trouble if there is no electricty or water. Our local hospital now has capacity for dialysis but I have noticed that the area used does not have the red power outlets indicating they are hooked to the generators.

Bugging out is not an option for dialysis patients and their families. Hoping for the best, mentally preparing for the very worst.

Any information will be appreciated.

-- Ruth Wallace (Nomokat@aol.com), August 08, 1999.

Shellie

In your last sentence, you have stated the problem concisely. I do not mean to say that you are without reason and I meant no insult. Please accept my post as an expression of frustration rather than offense. Im confident you are an excellent and professional care giver with a lot of heart to go with it. It would take someone utterly heartless to lack some capacity for compassion for those critically burdened individuals. I hope I never lack that compassion.

Unfortunately, you and me, along with the bulk of the population have almost completely surrendered our day to day existence to corporate America and/or the government. You are absolutely correct that we have come to depend too much on electricity for our daily living and the conveniences that those services allow. What that says to me is that the industry has done their job and done it very well. They have met our demands! Now, we are in the posture of placing blame on them for luring us into a sense of complacency and laziness. You and I both know where the blame lies and we need look no further than the end of our noses. Doesnt it seem ironic to you that some third world countries that are much less dependent on interruptible power may just come through this Y2k thing much easier than we will?

If you know for certain that these individuals have no back up or standby systems, you should immediately inform them to acquire the most dependable systems available. That is assuming their lives are at imminent risk upon loss of power. If they are relying on the utility to be able respond immediately, they must rethink this position or contact their service provider to insure they are aware of this obligation and can meet the customers expectations. Most utilities I am familiar with will not assume this level of liability for any reason. Nor should they!!!!!

-- Jake (Jake@reality.com), August 08, 1999.

I wish I could tell you more about if the centers are ready or not. I have been asking and asking the upper management about this since the first of the year. I have not received any answers yet. I did see a letter that was from the local water company stating that they did not see a problem with the new year and water would be safe for the patients receiving treatments. But they also have to know something from the vendors. I mean they have to have dialysers and dialysate fluid for starters. THe machines we have in are new however so hopefully they will work. It seems to me that the company is more interested in upgrading their billing system than worried about the patients. Jake, no offence taken. I just feel so badly for these patients. Most are very old and have just simply outlived their kidneys. Talking to them about backup systems is pointless. I wish them the very best. They have so many health problems along with renal failure. sigh.

-- shellie (shellie01@hotmail.com), August 08, 1999.

I know that the long term ventilator patients I used to work with have back up battery power. You can go several hours (usually, I think) with out dialysis, but ventilator-dependent patients must be ventilated 60/24/7. Brain death sets in within 5 minutes.

One ventilator patient I talked to some months ago told me that he has been informed that he must go to a hospital or designated school in the event of power outage on 1/1/2000. The long term care facility where he lives does not have emergency back up power, although it was built to house northern Alberta's long-term ventilator patients in 1994 or 1995. I'm glad I won't be working there on changeover!!!

-- Tricia the Canuck (tricia_canuck@hotmail.com), August 08, 1999.