Dr. Antonio Rodriguez Mimoso, an OB-GYN in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was on call when Hurricane Maria hit on Sept. 20, blasting the island with 150 mph winds and knocking out the electricity grid.

It was quite scary, said Mimoso, who drove to Ashford Presbyterian Community Hospital that night to deliver a baby. There were no traffic lights, no street lights, no nothing.

It wasnt just the city streets that were dark. The hospitals power supply had been damaged by the storm, leaving patients who rely on ventilators in a potentially deadly situation.

The nurses were starting to have to ventilate their patients manually, which is obviously inexact, and especially with newborns, it can be quite dangerous, Mimoso said.

Minutes after he arrived, partial power was restored to the hospital. Mimoso delivered his patients baby in half light, without air conditioning. She was sweating quite profusely, but everything went fine, he said.

More than a week after the storm, the hospital remains without full power. On low power, just three operating rooms can be used. Only emergency operations, like C-sections and appendicitis surgeries, are conducted. Non-emergency surgeries are lower priorities.

Emergency is in the eye of the beholder, said Mimoso, who has been on call twice more since Maria hit. While a cancer patient isnt going to die immediately if they wait an extra day or week for an operation, Im sure she feels like, If you dont do my surgery, I might die. It may delay my care and thats going to decrease my chances of getting a cure out of this.