WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The White River Junction VA Medical Center this week reopened an operating room that had been closed following flooding in June of last year.
The flooding, which was caused by a malfunctioning sprinkler on the top floor in the main hospital building, forced the temporary closure of all four of the medical center’s operating rooms and required that 60 surgeries be postponed, VA officials said last summer. No surgeries were taking place at the time of the flooding, which included a flow of five gallons per minute for about 45 minutes, according to a Monday news release from the medical center.
Three of the affected rooms were able to be reopened within weeks, but the fourth was severely damaged. The medical center took the opportunity created by the flooding to move forward with a $750,000 renovation of that fourth room a couple of years sooner than previously planned, VA spokeswoman Katherine Tang said in a phone interview.
The renovated room is “an ambidextrous room that can accommodate any surgery we perform,” said Thomas Cobb, a mechanical engineer at the White River Junction VA, in the release.
The renovation expanded this room’s size threefold and added flexibility to the way it is laid out, allowing equipment to be positioned 360 degrees around the operating table.
“Prior to this renovation we were limited to the types of surgeries we could perform because it was so small,” said William Sanborn, a registered nurse in the operating suite, in the release.
The room was used for procedures such as pain injections before the flooding, Tang said.
Now, it is the preferred room even for surgeries such as hip replacements, she said.
The room improvements also included adding a new monitoring system, which includes screens positioned throughout the space to provide several different views of the table.
This system has made it easier for everyone to view procedures, including resident physicians who are learning, the release said.
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
