Nearly 100 surgeries deferred at Cambridge hospital after mechanical failure

Cambridge Memorial Hospital (CMH) was forced to cancel nearly 100 surgeries this week after an unexpected mechanical failure.

Stephen Beckhoff, manager of public affairs and communications for the hospital, told CTV News in an email that CMH tested its generators on Wednesday, which caused an unexpected mechanical failure in the chillers that cool the operating rooms and minor procedures areas of the hospital.

“As such, the relative humidity in these areas was above the recommended levels for a number of hours. To ensure the safety of our patients, we made the decision to defer surgeries and minor procedures on July 6 and 7 so that all the surgical equipment can be re-sterilized,” Beckhoff said. “This process will finish later today.”

According to Beckhoff, the failure resulted in the deferral of 54 elective surgeries and 39 minor procedures.

Cambridge resident Keith Brown said he’s been waiting to receive knee replacement surgery for over a year.

He was scheduled to undergo the procedure on Thursday but received a call earlier that morning telling him it wasn’t going to happen.

“I basically broke down with my wife and kinda told her that I don’t know how much longer I can put up with this,” Brown told CTV News. “I take painkillers at night time just to help ease the pain. The day-to-day struggles just knowing to get out of bed to go to work to make a living.”

Brown said he reached out to the hospital for more information, but never got a call back.

“I haven’t even heard anything from my surgical team or the surgeon's office at all either,” Brown said.

The 50-year-old said he was directed to an answering machine which told him the office was closed for the weekend.

Brown said he tried booking surgery at another hospital but was told he would have to restart the year-long process all over again.

“I don’t feel like I’m first and foremost in their mind,” Brown said. “If there’s people you haven’t contacted to reschedule a surgery, why leave them waiting all weekend?”

The hospital said despite the mechanical failure, it had the means to continue with urgent and emergency cases over the course of the two days and will be able to handle emergency surgeries over the weekend.

Beckhoff said the hospital has been running its operating rooms at 100 per cent before the mechanical failure happened.