Storm prompts N.Y.C. hospital evacuation

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NEW YORK, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- In the midst of Hurricane Sandy's deluge, the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City was flooded, and about 300 patients were evacuated to other hospitals.

Seven of the hospital's buildings were flooded with 10 feet of water Monday, as doctors, nurses and hospital staff rushed to move patients, who included 20 newborn babies in the neonatal intensive care unit, CBS News reported.

"The power went off completely, and all the monitors ... just went. We had to go down nine flights of stairs that were wet, and had adult patients lying on the floors in stretchers. It was pretty crazy, and all this in complete darkness," said new mother Jo-An Tremblay-Shepard, whose son Jackson was born 27 weeks prematurely and was carried in the dark by a nurse who also bore his oxygen tank, until he was transported down Manhattan's unlit streets to Montefiore Hospital.

New father Jeremy Donovan waited for two hours in the storm until he could enter the hospital to see his son William, born three weeks ago with congenital heart disease, saying he ran up "15 flights of stairs to his floor and got to the top of the steps and it was pitch black. I found my son and I found his nurse and that was kind of an awesome moment. Then we just walked down together."

By Tuesday morning all the patients at NYU Langone were successfully taken to nearby hospitals, CBS said.