Malawi's largest referral hospital ran dry on a day when the thermometer in Blantyre pushed toward 35 degrees. Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, known to Malawians simply as Queens, had no water running to its wards during the heat. Patients and their relatives spent hours hunting for water, the one thing nobody thinks about until it disappears. Nurses were reduced to sending some patients home because care could not proceed without supply. The cause behind the outage was described as mundane, and that is exactly what makes it sting. A referral hospital that thousands depend on losing its water during a heatwave shows how thin the margins are.