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THE BURN TEAM OFTEN USES SKIN GRAFTS TAKEN FROM CADAVERS, WHICH STIMULATE A PATIENT'S OWN DERMAL GROWTH |
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The need to balance these
concerns when both time and care are
critical was evident to TIME reporter Alice Park, who observed
members of the New York Hospital-Cornell burn team as they
attended a 26-year-old woman who had been terribly burned on her
face and upper torso by acid thrown on her by her male
companion's former girlfriend:
7:47 a.m. After the nurses gently unwind the temporary loose gauze twined around her head, neck and chest, the woman is anesthetized, a breathing tube is placed in her mouth, and her temperature and blood pressure are monitored. While surgeon Alain Polynice finds her blood pressure to be within normal bounds, he notes that her temperature is slightly lower than desired, calls engineering to ask that the room temperature be raised. Then he places a bubbled heat blanket between her legs. 8:10 a.m. The surgical assistant begins washing the woman's left leg with a soapy solution, sterilizing it so that swatches of it can later be peeled away to graft onto her chest and neck. 8:14 a.m. Himel snaps some pictures of the patient's chest and the right side of her face. He is especially concerned about the patient's nose and right ear. "It's likely that she will lose that ear and have to have another one constructed for her next spring," he says. 8:25 a.m. Using an instrument resembling a vegetable peeler, Himel begins peeling back the hardened, white, dead skin on the woman's burned chest. "I know I've reached healthy skin if there's bleeding," he says. After a few thin layers have been removed, blood begins to ooze. While Polynice mops it up, Himel continues to peel away at dead skin until he reaches the fat and muscle layer underneath. 8:43 a.m. "The skin has been so damaged by the acid that it's liquefied," says Himel. It begins to stick to the razor-sharp peeler, which he wipes repeatedly to keep it clean. 8:50 a.m. Himel has moved his attention from the woman's chest to her neck and discovers that the acid has burned all the way through the dermis on the right side. He carefully slices away the damaged tissue.azor-sharp peeler, which he wipes repeatedly to keep it clean.
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