QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — The first time the electricity went out at night, Linda Vidal went into panic mode. For more than a year, the 52-year-old Ecuadorian woman, suffering from Hodgkin lymphoma and a chronic respiratory illness required an electric oxygen concentrator to breathe properly.

Despite her condition, she is one of a thousand power-dependent patients in Ecuador who spend hours in anguish while the government imposes it. power cuts up to 14 hours a day to cope with a severe drought.

Like other South American countries, Ecuador has faced a prolonged dry season that has hampered hydroelectric production, which accounts for 72% of national electricity production.

When the time comes for the power cut, Vidal must sit still, in anguish. as long as his device is turned off so he can breathe.

“For me, having an energy supply is extremely important,” said Vidal, who lives with her younger sister in the capital, Quito. “I am completely dependent on my oxygen concentrator and I always wonder whether or not we are going to have power outages to be able to live.”

According to the Ecuadorian Youth Against Cancer Foundation, there are approximately 1,000 patients in the country with respiratory problems who require the same mechanical assistance as Vidal.

“Their lives are in danger. It depends on elements that are fundamental rights like electricity or water,” said Gustavo Dávila, director of the foundation.

The foundation says replacing a device like Linda’s with one that runs on batteries would cost more than $3,000, which is unfeasible given Vidal and her sister’s modest incomes.

“The biggest risk I face is that by not being able to breathe, I won’t have enough oxygen to the brain and I will have a stroke,” she said.

Sitting in an armchair with her inseparable concentrator which, while connected, emits a constant sound, pumps water and sends oxygen through a tube, she recounts how the recent power cuts have made her live a nightmare. her and her sister.

They are orphans, single and share a house in the north center of the capital where extensive rationing is divided into two scheduled cuts each day: from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to midnight.

Rationing “causes anxiety, anguish, fear of dying and could even trigger a panic attack that can produce tachycardia because the person suffering from it feels imminent danger of death,” said psychologist Verónica Chávez, who spent a decade working with patients at the Youth Against Death Center. Cancer Foundation.

Ecuador began implementing an electricity rationing system of up to 10 hours a day in some cities since mid-September, but the blackout times announced Thursday are the most extreme yet now.

The drought affecting several countries in South America has been linked to the El Niño climatic phenomenon.

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