Amsterdam investigates third death during power outage
The municipality of Amsterdam is investigating whether a third death can be attributed to a massive power outage that hit the city and its surrounds on Tuesday. The family of a 75-year-old woman had to wait online for almost 10 minutes when calling emergency number 112 when the elderly woman became ill on Tuesday, AT5 reports.
The woman's husband had to wait for some time before getting old of the emergency services, a spokesperson for the municipality confirmed to NU.nl. The woman died in an ambulance on her way to the hospital. The municipality is talking with everyone involved and will find out exactly what happened and whether the woman's death is due to the major power outage in the city.
The husband told AT5 on Thursday that he waited about eight minutes before getting through to the emergency services, but after he got through everything else went quickly.
This is the third death that may be due to the massive outage, which hit 360 thousand homes on Tuesday mornings and caused havoc with train travel for the rest of the day. An 83-year-old woman's son also could not get through to emergency services and ended up calling their house doctor. The GP arrived to find the woman dead in her home. Another woman died presumably because the oxygen device she was dependent on gave out when the power went out.
