It could be days before crews finish repairing broken water pipe at Grady Memorial

ATLANTA — Patients en route to Grady Memorial were redirected to other hospitals this weekend after a water pipe burst on the sixth floor.

In a statement, a hospital spokeswoman said the break caused flooding in some patient care areas of the facility.

Of the 700 patients at the hospital, at least 150 patients will be transferred to other facilities, the hospital said Saturday night.

"The source was immediately identified and crews are on site to address the issue," Grady spokeswoman Denise Simpson said. "As a result of the split, several patient care rooms are now unusable and patients have been evacuated to other dedicated patient care locations in the hospital."

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Grady is also on "total diversion," meaning paramedics are being asked to take patients with emergencies to other hospitals, she said.

"Patient safety is our number one priority so at this time we are limiting visitors in order to allow us to focus on fixing the water pipe issue and making affected patient rooms usable again," Simpson said. "We are partnering with other hospitals in metro Atlanta and EMS to ensure patients in need of hospital care are transported to the appropriate facilities."

Channel 2's Audrey Washington spoke with patients and their families, who grew frustrated with the damage's impact on them.

"Just don't want to deal with it and stay any longer," said patient Pabist Hamm, who decided to check herself out. "I still don't feel good, but I'm going home."

Darlene Smith was inside the hospital visiting her daughter when the water pipe broke.

"You could see it spewing out of the pipes," she said. ""I tried to get back there but they wouldn't let me.
And the elevators were already flooded, so they said hit the stairs, to the fifth floor and it was coming down just as bad on the stairs."

Smith eventually got to see her daughter, but she is still worried about the situation.

"If something really happened to her, how are they going to handle that? Because she's in rough shape," she said.

Grady officials told Washington that all the remaining patients are being well taken care of. As for repairs, those are underway right now, but it could take until Wednesday.

"Grady remains on total diversion and all elective procedures have been canceled. We continue to restrict visitation to ensure the safety of guests as repair teams work around the clock to get the necessary work done," the hospital said in a statement.

Cox Media Group