Florida woman’s face catches fire during cyst surgery

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."

I also wonder if she had alcohol in her system and that contributed to the fire.

Another website had people arguing about what proof of alcohol would burn. Some claimed that 40 proof would sustain a fire, while others said that their 80 proof vodka wouldn't but 100 proof would. Considering that a blood alcohol level of 0.1% is legally drunk, and that converts to 0.2 proof, I doubt she caught on fire from drinking alcohol unless she had just drowned at the local distiller.

Whenever I make beef with red wine, I flambe the meat with cognac at one point.

The cognac is 80 proof. It is gently warmed first to release fumes that are lit with a match. The cognac itself doesn’t burn, and carefully I pour the flaming cognac over the beef in a wide pan. I cover it with a flame-proof lid to smother the flames.

So yes, 80 proof can catch fire, but it is the fumes that burn, not the liquid.

I once set the sheriff of our county on fire while using electrocautery to burn off some superficial basal cell carcinomas from his arm. It was momentarily exciting. I, too, used isopropyl alcohol to clean the surface of the skin.

A brief story an OBGyn friend of mine told me. When he was in residency at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, Texas he was working the clinic. An 18 year old young woman, Mexican, (did not speak English) came in with condyloma accuminata (Venereal Warts). As this was his first year of training, the old nurse, who had done this for many, many years, told him....what the doctor ususally does is burn off the small ones. As he had been graduated for about a month, he said, "Yes, yes, of course,...that is what we need to do", not having a clue what he was doing. So, they put her in stirrups, had a translator roughtly explain what was being done. Charlie (the first year OBGyn friend) injected the area locally with lidocain, then wiped the perineum with alcohol, and fired up the electrocautery....and achieved ignition....he set her pubic hair on fire....with a poof. The poor patient came out of the stirrups and ran down the hall and thru the double swinging doors, and to hear Charles tell it, she was never seen again, except for that little contrail following her through the doors. Now, I am sure he, being the great story teller that he is, told the story 'close' to what actually happened, with a little artistic license. But he did have us all howling.

This patient, referenced in this article, has a problem, which she will probably get over. It has been, in the field of surgery, that 'fire hazards' of many sorts have existed, many from the advent of the early anesthetics used in the OR. There have been fires reported from gas escaping from the colon during a colon resection. Lighting farts, have been a long cherished tradition amongst teenagers, but to ignite colonic gas during surgery has been serious in the past.

There is sterile saline solution on the operating field and we’re taught to use it to put the fire out. It’s the most readily available thing. We don’t keep extinguishers in the OR room itself.

Typically, you aren’t talking about a large fire, so getting the fire out isn’t as important as getting it out quickly. By the time you grabbed the extinguisher and pulled the pin the patient would be burned. Whereas, the saline could be used a faction of a second after the fire is noticed, plus the water would cool the skin and hopefully minimize any burns.

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