Lebanese hospital calls for help due to fuel shortage

Beirut, Aug 15 (IANS) The American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) has urged the World Health Organization (WHO) and other UN agencies to supply the facility with fuel, warning that hundreds of its patients would die in coming weeks if it fails to do so."Forty adult patients and 15 children living on respirators will die immediately. Another 180 suffering from renal failure will die after a few days without dialysis, Xinhua news agency quoted the AUBMC as saying in a statement on Saturday."Hundreds of cancer patients will die in subsequent weeks and very few months without proper treatment," the statement addedThe hospital also said that fuel shortages will force it to shut down starting from Monday onwards.Lebanon has been facing an unprecedented financial crisis amid a shortage in foreign reserves needed to secure the country's import of fuel.
--IANS ksk/