Posted on 12/02/2011 5:51:26 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
A 29-year-old mother of three is recovering in an Alabama burn unit after her face caught fire during a routine surgery earlier this week.
Kim Grice, of Holt, Fla., was having three cysts removed from her head at a hospital in Crestview, Fla., on Tuesday when a flash fire erupted, torching her face and neck, family members told the Crestview News Bulletin.
The blaze quickly fizzled, and doctors rushed her to the emergency room at North Okaloosa Medical Center, where she was stabilized.
She was then flown to the University of South Alabama Medical Center, where family members said she was able to talk to them on Wednesday.
Her mother, Ann Grice, said her daughter wasn't conscious when the blaze broke out.
"Kim said to me, 'They woke me up and everyone around me was hysterical. I don't know what happened to me,' " Ann Grice told the Destin Log.
Doctors at the panhandle hospital have kept the family in the dark about what caused the fire, Grice said.
"I still have not let her see or touch her face," Grice told the newspaper. "She is a very beautiful girl, my only child, and I don't have an answer for her."
Crestview fire officials told ABC News that surgery fires can flare up when electric or heat-generating tools, like lasers, mix with alcohol, oxygen and surgical coverings.
The North Okaloosa Medical Center said in a statement that they were investigating how the fire started.
"We are conducting a thorough review to fully understand what happened in a deliberate effort to prevent such an event from occurring again," the statement said.
Ann Grice said her family was stunned that her daughter went in for a routine procedure and ended up in a burn unit.
"Her eyes were too swollen for her to see me when I had visiting time this morning," Grice told the Destin Log. "She is just nauseated and I think, in shock. We all are."
That is messed up.
Horrible. I hope she’s able to heal.
I also wonder if she had alcohol in her system and that contributed to the fire. Not saying she'd deserve it if it's the case, because who could foretell that? I mean, they don't tell you before surgery "By the way, don't drink any vodka for 48 hours before surgery or you might burst into flames." Although maybe they should.
<<<cancelling surgery bump
IBJ (In Before Jokes)
IBLOHHCJTH (In Before Ladies On High Horses Condemning Jokers to Hell)
The local Fire Marshall needs to have a fire education session with the OR teams. *Heat, oxygen, fuel.
(2) I now know what plausibly to answer when people joke "what the heck happened to your face?"
(3) You'd only have to see what I see in the mirror every morning to know that the joke's on me.
Many hospitals/surgical centers have protocols for avoiding surgical flames, because of incidents like this. One of the precautions is to not use alcohol antiseptics.
I hope she recovers her original appearance... however, while working at a hospital with a top-notch burn unit, I saw enough burn patients to know that those kinds of injuries leave pretty obvious scars.
Thank you for the medical explanation. It would have been helpful if the author of the original article had done some research on the possible causes of such an accident. How frequent are accidents like these?
I’m thinking about my poor husband. He had brain surgery this past year for a non-malignent mengianoma (sp) the same day as Gabby Giffords was shot. Having his head catch on fire during surgery was NOT one of the things that worried me!
Fortunately he has recovered quite well, although he lost a lot of hair from the prophyllactic radiation treatments. Most of his hair has come back 6 months after the cessation of radiation, although he still has a rather odd hairline. He has a nasty scar and a dent in his skull where they drilled to start the incision, but I’ll take him any way I can have him.
I don’t know how I could have endured the wait for him to come out of surgery if I’d had to worry about him catching on fire.
"Let me show you something!"
meningioma
We have inservices about fires during surgery quite often. Surgical fires are an uncommon but not rare occurrence. Fortunately, they are typically extinguished before any harm is done to the patient. Lot’s of heat sources in the operating room these days. For example, we use fiber optic cables to deliver light to surgical telescopes [arthroscopy and laparoscopy scopes mainly] and the light from these is intense enough to catch the paper drapes on fire.
Then there are lasers, electrocautery units and etc.
My best guess is they didn’t let the skin prep dry on this lady before they used the electrocautery. It is alcohol based. A spark would ignite it easily and create a flash fire.
I had the same thing happen with a mole on my arm and I was bone dry (of liquor). The doctor had used alcohol to deaden the place and then touched an electrocautery to it.
Rather spectacular for a few moments. But the alcohol quickly burned itself out and the doctor was apologetic. I only lost some arm hair.
Dang. You know... hospitals just scare me. I hope I just grow old and die in my sleep like Grandpa (not awake and screaming, like the passengers in his car.) Old joke but you know what I mean.
What means do they have to extinguish these fires in a OR?
CO2?
I’m glad to hear your husband recovered well. I hope he and you have a wonderful Christmas season.
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