Pipes burst at Montreal’s Douglas Hospital, sending torrent of water onto lab equipment

Parts of the Douglas Hospital in Montreal were flooded on Monday after burst pipes sent water gushing through the ceiling.

The Douglas Mental Health University Institute, which is considered a world-class mental health research centre, has long been in dire need of renovations and one medical professional says the poor condition of the facility is affecting important research.

The pipes in the sprinkler system burst on the first and second floors of the Lehmann Pavilon, according to Dr. Sylvain Williams, principal investigator at the Williams hippocampus and memory laboratory.

Almost half of the building was affected. Video of the leak shows water pouring through the ceiling in an area that houses lab equipment and donated human samples.

“These are scientific labs that have very valuable scientific instruments and we are doing research on mental health as well as on Alzheimer’s disease … and there’s a lot of research on genomics, for example, trying to find new treatments and new causes to find causes of psychiatric diseases, and Alzheimer’s disease,” Dr. Williams told CTV News.

“These are going to be slowed down. That type of research will be slowed down for a while, for certain.”

Burst pipes during winter in the hospital, built in 1881, is not a new problem.

• Montreal’s Douglas hospital in disrepair, faces overcrowding and infrastructure failures

Last summer, workers drew attention to the hospital’s poor state, pointing to other problems like overcrowded units, animal infestations, mould in the walls, and a lack of air conditioning in the summer.

They called for urgent repairs to be able to do their work safely and provide proper care for patients.

Dr. Williams said Monday that renovations were scheduled for the hospital but they were put on hold last year.