Patient Catches Fire
- A southern Illinois woman died after being severely burned in a flash fire while undergoing surgery, a rare but vexing problem in operating rooms.
Janice McCall, 65, of Energy, Ill., died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., on Sept. 8, six days after being burned on the operating table at Heartland Regional Medical Center in Marion, Ill., her family's attorney said.
- Surgical flash fires are most often sparked by electric surgical tools when oxygen builds up under surgical drapes. They occur an estimated 550 to 600 times a year -- a tiny fraction of the millions of surgeries performed in the U.S. annually -- and only kill about one or two people each year...
Granted, you don't want dust and stuff blowing around an operating room with people cut open and their guts hanging out, but you don't want them catching fire either. Jane Doe goes in for a little nip and tuck and comes out needing skin grafts and worse?
Looks like we'll be putting off those retirement knee replacements, rotator cuff and liposuctions for a bit yet.
Looks like we'll be putting off those retirement knee replacements, rotator cuff and liposuctions for a bit yet.
Labels: we got nothing
posted by SCC at 1:00 AM
18 Comments:
An oxygen rich environment is one very conducive to a flash fire. Three astronauts died in their capsule in Florida on the launch pad in such a fire.
The dangers in operating rooms are well known, many antiseptic solutions and surgical preps are alcohol based. The patient becomes a human torch. Face and mouth surgery are very susceptible due to heavy use of electric surgical devices.
I HATE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS!
ouch!
Hate to be crappy about this, but, you do a great job with police issues. Surgical room fires - cause and prevention - may be a bit outside your area of expertise. As you state, things are not always as simple as they seem!
Handled a job at Coo County Hosp. in 1997 or 98 when this happened to a teenage gunshot victim on life support. It was a real mess.
If you check SCC's archive for 29 Aug 09, under the Darwin Award post you will notice that fire is the most common variable in the comments for stupidity. There we learned not to mix fire with gasoline, alcohol, propane or fireworks.
I suppose we should add Oxygen to the list!
Gives new meaning to the term "She is such a HOTTIE!!!
Wacked.
That's hot
HEY!!! I just got a knee replacement and I read this when I was in the hospital!! WTF?
In law enforcement circles, this is known as a "heater" case!
Hate to be crappy about this, but, you do a great job with police issues. Surgical room fires - cause and prevention - may be a bit outside your area of expertise. As you state, things are not always as simple as they seem!
Evidently humor is a bit outside your area of expertise. SCC didn't say a word about cause and effect. They posted a story, threw in a little humor and voila! Blog posting!
If it happened frequently, you'd know it, because every ambulance-chasing attorney would have billboards next to the tollway: "Have you been incinerated during surgery? Call the law offices of..."
I just read on a medical blog that people on an operating table who fart while the surgeon is excising a hemorrhoid with an electric cautery thing can get burned from the methane gas catching fire. Doesn't happen very often though.
Sorry - I do have a great sense of humor - I guess a story about people dieing in an operating room fire didn't strike me as particularly funny the day after my six-year-old granddaughter underwent surgery. And, somehow, your comments just didn't see all that witty!
It appears again that SCC and his-it's buddy, Northern are now reporting medical news.
Now news to diss the Supt and his staff shmuck(s) !
Sorry - I do have a great sense of humor - I guess a story about people dieing in an operating room fire didn't strike me as particularly funny the day after my six-year-old granddaughter underwent surgery. And, somehow, your comments just didn't see all that witty!
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And SCC didn't make fun of the dead woman...not once. They actually noted that dust and flying debris could pose a serious infection risk. The wise crack at the end about putting off surgery was obviously a tongue-in-cheek sign off typical of SCC. Guess you're kind of new here and don't recognize gallows humor that's a hallmark of police. Don't be sad, it's a typical firefighter shortcoming.
And while I'm sorry your granddaughter just underwent surgery and hope she has a speedy recovery, you're an ass for throwing that at SCC. Their crystal ball must have been on the blink when they wrote the article and they didn't realize they weren't ever supposed to use self-deprecating humor about knee replacements when your granddaughter was recovering from her own medical condition. If you could just post a calendar of upcoming surgical events planned for your family, I'm sure SCC would be more than happy to avoid painful reminders that may trigger your lack of humor. Dork.
"I just read on a medical blog that people on an operating table who fart while the surgeon is excising a hemorrhoid with an electric cautery thing can get burned from the methane gas catching fire. Doesn't happen very often though.
9/20/2009 01:55:00 AM"
That's what they get for eating Mexican food the night before.
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