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Courtesy the Grice Family via Cr
Kim Grice, shown before and after her face caught on fire during surgery Tuesday to remove cysts in her head.
It was supposed to be a routine outpatient surgery to remove some growths from Kim Grice’s head. But something went horribly wrong during the Tuesday morning procedure and a flash fire seared Grice’s face and neck.
The 29-year-old mother of three was rushed by helicopter to the University of South Alabama Burn Unit with burns to her face and neck.
Grice’s mom, who had been waiting in the lobby of the North Okaloosa Medical Center in Crestview, Fla., knew something bad had happened.
“At 8 a.m. two patients were back there,” Ann Grice told the Crestview (Fla.) News Bulletin. “One was my daughter. At 10:20 emergency medical and the fire department pulled up and there was a fifty-fifty chance that they were coming through the doors for my daughter. I went to the desk and no one would tell me what was wrong.”
When hospital personnel finally explained that Kim’s face had caught fire, Ann was stunned.
“I am in shock,” she told the Bulletin. “This is not what happens with a routine outpatient surgery. She had headaches and the doctor was going to remove three cysts and biopsy them. But something went bad wrong and my daughter is now in a burn unit with burn specialists and I still don’t know what happened. No one will tell me why or how this happened to her.”
What happened to Kim Grice was not an isolated incident. Experts estimate that each year 650 fires flare up in operating rooms around the country. Some patients recover with scars and emotional damage. Some die from burns and smoke inhalation.
Surgeons and other hospital staff are often as surprised as patients when a fire sparks in the OR.
North Okaloosa Medical Center issued a statement with an update on Kim Grice’s condition, promising a full investigation of the fire.
“The hospital deeply regrets today’s event in which a patient sustained burns during a procedure in our ambulatory surgery center,” the statement read. “The staff took immediate steps to respond, including moving the patient to the hospital’s emergency department. The patient was fully alert and able to converse with the ED staff during the examination and initial treatment. She was stabilized and then transferred to the University of South Alabama Medical Center for further care.
Experts say it shouldn’t be a surprise when fires flash in ORs. All the necessary ingredients are on hand to spark a conflagration.
These days more and more operations use electro-cautery devices and lasers. Those devices are what Dr. David Cowles calls the “trifecta” of elements – oxygen, alcohol prep and an ignition source - that lead to flash fires in the OR.
Story: Operating room fires hurt hundreds a year
“There’s a basic simple chemistry and physics principle that when three elements are combined then a fire occurs,” Cowles told NBC’s Dr. Nancy Snyderman in a recent interview. “Likewise, if you remove any one of those elements it makes it impossible for a fire to occur.
The FDA launched a new initiative to prevent surgical fires, noting that though these are rare events, they are also highly preventable. The agency convened a special workshop to look for ways to stop fires from ever happening and to give medical personnel the tools and knowledge needed to deal with a fire if one occurs.
Until more hospitals learn about the danger of fire in the OR, each year there will be more patients like Kim Grice.
"I am so ready to see my babies," she told the Crestview Bulletin in a telephone interview Thursday from the South Alabama Medical Center's burn unit. "But I don't want them to see me this way.”
NBC's chief medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman looks into the increasing rate of fires in operating rooms, leading the FDA to create a new, surgical fire-safety initiative.
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NASA learned about pure oxygen with the Apollo fire. Maybe it's time for medicine to rethink some things.
At least now I now why the hospital I worked at for 18 years was always having Code Red drills. Thankfully I only remember one actual fire and I don't think it was in the OR.
Ouch!
Different story altogether.......The "plugs in test" pumped the O2 levels 14 or 16 psi. With a ignition source, some materials......EXPLODE not burn explode. The Apollo accident, was a capsule pumped up with pure 02, the patients are in a room of air. While getting O2 to breath, the patient is no where in the danger that the astronauts were.
Hospitals have safely been dealing with pure oxygen for many years.
I'm taking a guess that the real cause of this fire was inadequate ventilation in the OR. If the alcohol prep fumes had been properly vented out of the room this type of fire is much less likely.
That's what they get when they set up shop in a former strip mall (as many outpatient surgical centers are) instead of a facility actually designed for surgery.
Hopefully THEY have good insurance, as they've ruined this woman's formerly attractive face.
Where's the dweezel who was here two months ago preaching how minimal the chances of this were?
She said "No" as the doctor was giving her a "Herman"
Maybe Kims possible inclusion to the 1% club will sooth the sting of those burns . Good luck Kim .
@jim- what the h**L is wrong with you? How can you possibly draw a line from her tragic incident to making a political joke. Tactless doesn't even begin to describe you....
650 OR fires per year is too much. I wonder if anti fire gels and powders combined with a protective blanket they can apply to patients could prevent this in the future. Stunt people do this in shows and films all the time. I mean it would be a simple procedure to drape a patient in a wet gel like blanket and only leave a port for the incision and other interface areas. From Kim's wound I can see that the fire was really close to her oxygen interface (nose or mouth). Covering her face with a gel soaked fabric would have prevented the wounds. Maybe not the fire but definitely the wounds.
Possible lawsuit?
Possible?
"Possible" - Are you kidding, more like definite. I feel sorry for this woman. The face is the absolute worst place to wind up with burns. She is going to have a long road ahead of her to recover from this, both physically and psychologically. I hope that her children are old enough to understand what has happened and that it is still their mom under the burns. It can be very frightening for young children to see someone with bad burn scars, particularly on their face. Because of what they see on TV and in the movies young children sometimes get scared, thinking these poor people are monsters. I hope this does not happen with this woman's children. Looking at the pictures it is hard to believe that they are of the same woman. Either the before picture is older and she put on weight since it was taken or the burns caused massive amounts of swelling to her face. I think it is probably a combination of the two. In any case, this woman has a long road ahead of her. I am sure that there will be a suit or some type of large settlement, but no amount of money can make up for what this woman is going to have to go through and live with for the rest of her life.
Just blame it on George Bush.
Yep! That's the answer, lawsuit!!
Can someone remind me again why Americas health care costs are so high?
If we find out later on that the hospital charges her for her surgery and the burn center care, than it's time for a major lawsuit.
micomd -
"Can someone remind me again why Americas health care costs are so high?"
Because greedy, lazy, incompetent morons won't take reasonable precautions to lower the chances of "highly preventable" events. And I somehow doubt that you (or any of us really) wouldn't look for some sort of restitution after someone lights your face on fire.
micromd.... If you were a beautiful young lady and this happened to you, wouldn't you want to punish the incompetent B-Tards that caused it.
How would you like to live with the stigma of having people cringe when they see you?
A few of the many lawsuits foisted on the Medical Services ARE valid and this is one of them. If you want to know why America's Physicians have such large insurance premiums ASK THE DEADBEAT LAWYERS WHO ADVERTISE A THOUSAND TIMES A DAY ON TELEVISION.
I can totally agree with your point of view on this one jonjojon. Many of the malpractice suits are that, frivilous. Doctors being sued because of little mistakes is wrong, they are human after all, not gods (even though there are some that think they are). But this one is a 100%, surefire win. This accident could have been prevented, and probaly by making sure that her oxygen mask was tighly in place and snug, or cutting back on the oxygen.
micromd - there are times when a lawsuit is absolutely warranted - and I would say that a completely preventable fire that results in your face catching on fire counts as one of those times.
And jonjojon - I think that anyone, regardless of how young or "beautiful" they were before the accident, is as entitled to compensation in a case like this as she should be.
Fallout -
More like very highly unlikely, when was the last time someone caught fire in an OR??? I'm sure the staff at that hospital followed the correct protocol for her procedure. Not to mention you take a risk of not only complications but also death anytime you have surgery. To think that nothing can go wrong is just naivety.
Jonjo-
How are they incompetent? like I stated to Fallout I'msure they followed the protocol for the procedure, unless you read something i didnt about gross negligence. It was in short a freak accident. Oh and by the way the lawyers don't hold a gun to any ones head and make them sue, it's the typical Americans greed for money for nothing.
Should she be compensated for pain, suffering, hospital care? yes. But whats going to happen is she'll probably sue for millions for at best was an unusual accident.
Lawsuits amount to less than 1% of the healthcare costs. Try again Rush!
Even though this may seem like a surefire win if she sues, it's more than likely that she signed a pre-surgery consent form acknowledging risks associated with surgery including possible injury or death. Fires may not be explicitly covered by a statement like that, but it falls clearly enough into the category of "injury" that she may be sunk. That being said, the use of 100% oxygen for medical purposes can hardly be compared to the use of 100% oxygen in the Apollo 1 fire. NASA originally used oxygen only because it required only one type of gas tank and only one type of pump system for the single gas...all the astronauts needed was enough oxygen to survive, hence the 60-40 mix of nitrogen and oxygen implemented after the fire. 100% oxygen is used in medical procedures because it is the most efficient way to ensure a patient is receiving enough oxygen for the body to keep itself functioning during the procedure. As the body is technically undergoing a serious injury during any surgical procedure (albeit a controlled one), it needs more oxygen to keep its systems stable. So as far as the three factors to control in order to prevent fire in this situation, unfortunately oxygen cannot be one of them.
doc-
it's not the settlement it's the insurance premiums. As much as 10% of your doctors bill goes towards malpractice insurance. That may not seem like much but when your bill is 100k that amounts to 10k a lot of money to me!
How's that for tyring again smart guy?
rjh: I'm sure she did not sign a consent for incompetance. She won't have to worry about the lawsuit, it will just be the insurance companies fighting over who pays and how much.
Anyway, with some luck and a good plastic surgeon she might not look as good as she was, but hopefully she won't be scarred for life either.
MicroMD, an MD with a God complex killed my mother by simply not following up on a plainly written note delivered to him by his radiologist/partner. Go sell your bull@!$%#e somewhere else.
This has to do with the cost of health care and a freak accident how? I sure hope the guys in jail if he killed your mother!
I am in healthcare and hate frivolous lawsuits, believing them to have practically destroyed healthcare; but in this case I can't get the phrase "highly preventable" out of my mind. This is a news story and, as such, likely does not tell the whole picture; but if these fires truy are highly preventable and it is known that they are and if a way currently exists to prevent them, then this was not just a tragic accident-it really was negligence. If there is not a way to prevent them currently even though it is known that they are preventable, that needs to change immediately.
I'm sorry people but i have to back up micromd on this one. When a lawsuit is settled, its the insurance companies that pay the millions, not those at fault. Those at fault pay through increased insurance premiums and they pass that added cost on to us.
I went through a malpractice lawsuit. My wife died from malpractice after giving birth to our son. The reasons the doc's were giving us just totally did not make sense nor fit the situation.
I wont go into the whole story of my suit except to say that lawsuits can uncover more then just malpractice, as my lawsuit did. My suit uncovered a lot of wrong doings at the hospital where my son was born and because of my suit, all were/have been corrected.
My suit also showed the doc we used only knew how to do half of his job, showing that he lied to the hospital which resulted in his immediate termination.
But back to the point, the high cost of health care is from lawsuits. When a doc is sued, his insurance premium is going to go up or hes going to get dropped and he'll have to find a new insurer. This new insurer will know about his previous suit and will price his insurance accordingly.
Not all lawsuits deserve a million dollar judgement but lawsuits are needed in the medical field due to what they could uncover, as my lawsuit did.
Even though lawsuits are the reason for high health care costs, they are needed to uncover hospitals taking short cuts to try and save money at the cost of our health/lives.
Nosaro8 raises a very good point that is not made often enough.
A major reason for so many malpractice lawsuits is the medical profession's unbelievably lousy job of policing itself and getting rid of the bad docs.
Instead of covering each other's behinds so often, doctors ought to weed out the same small percentage who make mistake after mistake after mistake. Then their premiums and our medical costs would go down.
Accountants, lawyers, and engineers, for instance, have professional boards that are hard on their peers. That works to keep the good ones and get the bad ones out much more quickly than medical boards do.
@david- you would think this is a sure fire win, but a vast majority of people lose their lawsuits. A person actually has to prove known negligence, like they KNEW what they were doing was negligent, but went ahead and did it anyway. Unless this wasn't an accident she won't win against the doctor.
Do you realize that O.R. Anesthesiologists are among the most highly trained, highly paid and heavily insured Medical Practitioners in the field? If you're familiar with O.R.s think of the smell of Alcohol, the Gasses (such as Concentrated Oxygen) and the amount of paper and other flammables.
Improper venting of the room alone proves negligence, a too-warm room would boost the possibility of Spontaneous Combustion. Read the article with an open mind.
From what I read, this type of fire is definitely preventable. This is inexcusable and she should sue them for all they've got. If they have no steps in place to prevent this type of thing, they have no business being in the medical business (and believe me, it's a BIG business).
micromd is 100% correct
people want to assign blame when there is a bad outcome...almost universally. But sometimes bad things just happen...we have no idea what went on in that room. Things may have been done exactly the same as every other surgery center or hospital in the country
But a bad outcome does not mean someone was at fault, and the severity of the injury is not always proportional to the odds of negligence
MicroMD --
You ask what this has to do with the cost of health care and a freak accident. Freak accidents? Absolutely nothing. But when you infer the high cost of health care is directly related to law suits and imply that law suits are wrong because they lead to an increase in the costs of providing care, you need to be set straight. Not all law suits brought against doctors are frivilous. My mother's case is an example of just such a suit.
When the radiologist includes in his report a note to the MD saying "[t]here is a suspicious spot on patient's left lung. You need to follow up with her about it sooner rather than later." And then, not only does the MD not mention it to my mother but has the gall to tell her "how dare you question my professional competence, you need to find a new physician" when she asked him about it four years after it was initally written, I'd say he was ripe for being sued.
What's more, the fact that my mother died a year and a half after she brought the note to the MD's attention because the small spot on her left lung was left untreated for more than four years after it was initially spotted simply because her MD did not do his job leads me to the conclusion that he killed my mother. Is he criminally liable? No. Can he be tried in a criminal court and sentenced to jail time? No. Can he be sued civilly for medical malpractice and wrongful death? You bet your a$$ he can. And he was.
If, in your mind, that makes me a person who needlessly causes the cost of health care to go up, then so be it. In my mind, the law suit was more about making this overeducated fool find a new occupation because he clearly did not have the capacity to responsibly work in the medical field.
Have a nice day.
People also need to remember there is no such thing as "routine surgery" and the press needs to stop stating it in their articles. Accidents happen and as an OR employee it infuriates me when people use the phrase "routine surgery". All surgery comes with risks and complications, including death. Hospital employess work very hard and diligently to prevent such tradegies. My heart goes out to this youg lady and her family, but please don't slam the OR team. They are probably as upset as everyone else (and no I don't mean because their might be a lawsuit); I am talking emotionally upset and beating themselves up. Sometimes, accidents happen and the fact that the fire was controlled and extenguished so fast is a credit to the OR team. I prayers go out to the patient, the patient's family, and the team that was taking care of her when this happened. I hope they all get the care they deserve and need.
If there is no such thing as routine surgery then why do doctors themselves routinely refer to some surgeries as being routine???????
To make you feel better about getting it. Do you want to hear that you are about to undergo a potentially life threatening procedure that could leave you a vegetable for the rest of your life or would your rather have the Dentist tell you it's a routine extraction that very rarely has complications?
Yes, even routine surgeries come with risks and complications. That does not make them other than routine. Those risks and complications are part of the routine. You are arguing semantics, but it does not make sense. "Routine" does not mean without risk, so arguing that the term should not be used because there are risks is illogical.
saddened...exactly! The Apollo mission and space shuttle missions were "routine" space flights. Routine does not mean the same thing to all people in all walks of life.
No, I am not arguing semantics..many people actually believe that there are "routine" surgeries, 100% safe without pain and problems. I don't believe docs or dentists should use that word either. All patients need to understand that any kind of surgery comes with risks, from mild to the extreme!
Risks, yes, but not spontaneous combustion of the face for something as simple as mole removal.
@ a few of you above,
When a doctor says "routine," s/he is still supposed to give you the risks involved -- even for removing a stupid wart.
(Everything medical has a risk -- even prescriptions.)
Then you, as the patient, are asked to sign... something.
If your doctor hasn't explained/given any you any "risks," ASK about the risks before you sign! If s/he has and you're still not sure, ASK more questions.
@choco640,
I support your post 100%. As in engineer ("math-guy") I know nothing is 100%.
My father was a maintenance superintendant at a local hospital back in the mid 70's and they had a case where there was an older gentleman who had undergone "routine" surgery of some type and afterwards he was in an oxygen tent in a room by himself.
The older gentleman had been told that smoking was off limits as was any hair creams/oils/wax etc while he was in the tent with oxygen due to the fire hazard. The man’s daughter came to visit and he asked her to bring him some butch wax for his hair and some smokes when she returned the next time.
Well she did just that, she brought hair stuff and smokes, but she didn't bring hair wax she picked up petroleum jelly for him to use instead, she thought that it would be OK. She helped him do his hair and she handed him his smokes. Just as she was sitting down in a chair he lit a smoke and started to lay the matches and pack of smokes down when in an instant his head caught fire as did his hands and the sheets where the petroleum jelly had gotten spread to! The tent basically melted right to him in an inferno, brought on by the flash point of the petroleum jelly being lowered by the increased oxygen concentration in the atmosphere of the tent!!! Pure oxygen will cause a fire with little to no effort; a static spark will set most any kind of oil on fire if it's in a pure oxygen environment. It also will cause most cottons and polyesters to burn like all get out as well!!
This is a tragic situation that without doubt caused the OR staff involved to anguish over what happened to their patient!!!
@Todd-651965,
"Do you want to hear that you are about to undergo a potentially life threatening procedure that could leave you a vegetable for the rest of your life or would your rather have the Dentist tell you it's a routine extraction that very rarely has complications?"
Either you made major typos (omitting a "not" somewhere), were attempting to be sarcastic, or just missed the boat.
Uh... duh! In this age of internet diagnosis, TV commercials telling what I "have," an stores of the number of malpractice suits AND costs malpractice insurance in an exponentially upward climb?
I want to hear BOTH!
There are routine Proceedures not routine Surgeries. Those surgeries referred to a "Routine" should and are referred to as Low Risk Surgeries.
Then why use alcohol? A flame retardant sterilizing solution might cost more but duh-oh.
there's no such thing as a flame retardant solution, and especially one that wouldn't be toxic to the human body......alcohol is only one of many sterilizing methods used in medical procedures
Her insurance probably wouldn't have covered it.
I have worked in surgery and they DO NOT use alcohol as a sterilizing agent. It doesn't clean well and they have other, much better things like betadine, etc., that are not flammable and clean better. I kind of doubt the use of 100% O2 as it just isn't good for a body to have that much into the lungs, and though it was an outpatient surgery (initially), the patient may have been intubated with pressurized gases forced into the lungs. 100% O2 is not needed then nor advised.
fatbee,
If you're for real, can you give us some way to check this info?
(I'm not saying you're NOT for real, but... online.... ya know.... Thanks!)
he's right...they mostly use chlorohexadine now--i have no idea if that's inflammable or not
I don't know how you would check this except asking the appropriate people
100% Oxygen would be fatal, remember your chemistry it would burn out your lungs.
hahaha...that's nonsense
where did you take chemistry??
I mean really...ventilators have a setting for 100% Fio2, or inhaled oxygen...why would a setting exist that would be lethal?
Accidents do happen; take this poor victem's plight as an example. Simply put, an INCREASED concentration of Oxygen in a limited space increases the possibility of combustion. By the way, I was answering a different post, not yours eric; so don't take it personally.
By the way; chlorohexadine IS used as a cleansing rinse and antiseptic in similar conditions. HOWEVER; chlorohexadine is based in alcohol when used.
It does seem as though more precautions are needed. Most large companies train employees how to handle fire emergencies and extinguishers. I am very surprised that "economy killer" was not told that oxygen and a spark create a fire danger in the hospital they worked.
The hospital may have done as much as it could physically (although that isn't certain), but not tell the mother in the waiting room? She was supposed to be told how the surgery was going, and they really dropped the ball; they shattered it. I had that happen myself years ago, where my husband's job called me up and said my husband had had a minor injury. I went to the hospital (thinking it was something like a limb problem) and the hospital wouldn't let me in to see him, saying they had a policy against visitors in the ER. They took so long I took our daughter home. Then later they called me to pick him up, and he was so upset that I hadn't been there because he had a broken back. I didn't even know why he was being sent home; it wasn't minor, but because it happened at work, everybody was sweeping it under the rug. Treatment should include the entire family, because it is the caregiver who eventually will treat a patient for months afterwards.
And take her all the way to Alabama from Florida? There are no burn units in the southeast? (Probably not; we saw the AIDS article showing the poor medical care in that region, especially Florida.)
Honestly, the staff’s ability to handle traditional fires that result from the actual ‘flash fire’ that can occur during certain surgical procedures is fairly irrelevant b/c the damage being done to the patient is immediate. The actual ‘flash fire’ itself is the result of an oxygen rich environment where you also have a number of flammable vapors present depending on the type of surgical equipment being used. Add some kind of laser or heat source into the mix and it’s a recipe for disaster if anything goes wrong in regards to the seals that are in place to regulate the mixture of gas, liquid and a source of heat.
For all intensive purposes, her face was ground zero for an air burst explosion and the problem is that these 'out patient' procedures need to incorporate more safety for the patients. They're basically using a laser on her face to remove certain sections of skin, so it wouldn't be out of the question to have her face covered in some kind of fire retardant gel like stunt men use, but now you're increasing the cost of the operation and hospital don't like to spend more money than they have to.
As for why they brought her so far away for medical attention, I’m not familiar with hospitals in that region, but a major concern for patients who are injured by a flash fire in the OR is that the burns can be internal as a result of the patient having inhaled some of the incredibly hot air as the gas responsible for the explosion was in a state of combustion. So it’s more than likely that a burn unit could’ve been nearby, but they may have needed a VERY special type of unit to treat the internal injuries she may have suffered.
Actually, Crestview is only 1.5 hrs away from Mobile, Alabama where USA Medical Center is located. USAMC Burn unit covers the panhandle of FL, southern AL, southern MS and southern LA. I have friends who are burn unit nurses there and they are very dedicated and capable. The chief is a celebrated and pioneering surgeon. They've handled Katrina patients, the Deepwater Horizon explosion and worse from 4 states. Burn units are not as common as you might think. For instance California has fifteen for a population of 35,000,000. Alabama has 3 for a population of 5,000,000. Florida has 4 but they all are located in East Florida.
Here's my short list of absurd things you should never hear after a surgery:
* We're sorry, but there was a complication and we had to amputate your penis.
* We lost a sponge somewhere, so if you find that you're thirstier than before, please come back and let us know.
*We took the liberty of installing an EZ Tag for the toll lanes while we were in there.
*Don't be alarmed: It's the year 2391. You died during surgery and your family had you cryogenically frozen.
*We all die sometimes, kiddo, and you never actually left the island.
*We're terribly sorry, but YOUR FACE CAUGHT ON FIRE.
"Sorry, but that procedure wasn't covered by your insurance. How would you like to pay for that?"
Don't forget the classic: "We accidentally replaced your heart with a baked potato...and you only have 10 seconds to live" :)
That's just not right...
Poor woman. She is attractive in the before pic. I hope for her sake they can make her look real close to what she did or the emotional damage may be worse than the physical. This type of accident shouldn't happen. Common sense precautions are all that are needed.
Hey, maybe this explains those cases of internal human combustion!
Sounds like a simple case of spontaneous combustion to me.
Did they sound the "FIRE" alarm in the hospital?
Can you say lawsuit? Rightly so. The woman has been disfigured for life and deserves every penny she will receive.
those are before and after shots? how many years before?
unless the growths were the excessive amounts of fat from being obsese, the after photo looks like she weighed 100 pounds more, and don't say its because of injuries... look at her shoulders and neck.
the truth was, she was in for lipo or some other cosmetic surgery to remove fat.
fat, grease, etc are flamable...
if americans would stop being so fat and thinking surgery is the quick fix, those things couldn't happen.
My thoughts exactly. She'll probably look better than before. I burned my left foot badly in an accident years ago and it looks 20 years younger then my right foot. It healed well. The after photo doesn't look that bad really.
Empathetic much?
If I had my guess I would say that is some serious swelling. Trauma does that. I hope she makes a full recovery.
I feel sorry for the woman and her suffering. But we are already being manipulated by her family with this "before" picture as it was clearly taken many pounds ago. The person in the "after" picture is much heavier than the "before" picture. Give us a true "before" picture for full disclosure.
Um, ever heard of SWELLING? you know, that thing that happens when you get injured? idiot.
This does not look like the same woman! I don't care if she faced a hydrogen bomb up close I still can't see the womans features changing as much as in those photos!
She obviously has swelling and maybe weight gain since the before photo would be my guess.
I have worked in a burn unit. There is a massive fluid resusitation after someone is burned. She could have very well looked like her 'before' picture. The fluid resusitation swells the entire body, not just where she was burned. I have had family members not recognize their loved one in these cases.
Wow i would sue the dogfu ck out of those doctors.
Someone didn't wait for the alcohol to evaporate before using electro cautery. Carelessness. The hospital didn't want the mother to know what happened so they couldn't be held liable if they gave her the wrong info and it gave them time for all of those present to get their story staight. CYA time.
Many flammable materials or chemicals will routinely be found in an OR & fire can be caused by several means. But one factor is almost always present. An over concentration of oxygen. This is always caused by insufficient or defective ventilation. This is a leading cause of many problems including infections not only in the OR's but through out our hospitals.
Having one's face catch fire while in a hospital is ............er.........below average to say the least. Proof of negligence. None needed. Classic case of res ipsa loquitur. Get out the checkbook, guys.
I feel really bad for the woman, but did the reporter really say:
"Surgeons and other hospital staff are often as surprised as patients when a fire sparks in the OR."
That's the understatement of the year, I think...
I was wondering if the woman smeared any moisturizer on her face BEFORE the surgery? I'm just asking. I just can't imagine this happening to her unless she was wearing something that caused her face to ignite. Plus, her face in the after shot seems to be EXTREMELY swollen compared to her before shot. Just odd IMHO.
went in for a throat scope. supposed to be in then out in a few hours after coming around. guess my throat didn't like being messed with. throat clamped down afterwards, went into acute pulminary edema (explained to me as your lings filled with fluids), and woke up a couple of days later in intensive care with tube down my throat, sedated and tied to the bed so i couldn't try to jerk the tube out.
Most people swell following surgery even when they don't catch on fire. I went in for surgery weighing 96 lbs and came out weighing 115. It subsided after 4 or 5 days. I imagine this poor woman's face is swollen from the combination of surgery and burns.
In Texas, they've capped punitive damages at $250,000. I had a friend who very nearly died after doctors jabbed a hole in his intestines during surgery. Then when he started crapping all inside himself, they blamed it on "post operative swelling." It wasn't until he was near death's door that they finally figured out what they had done. No lawyer would take the case because the meager reward just wasn't worth the litigation. Thanks, Texas. I wonder if my insurance is valid in Louisiana.
These kinds of caps are brought to you by your friends in the G.O.P.
and work very well to deter frivilous lawsuits
Even if the above story is factual, why should the damages exceed 250K?
Elizabeth, she WAS in Florida, near Pensacola and was taken to the University of Alabama burn unit. The article did not say if it was the University of South Alabama burn unit, but I would assume so since that is in Mobile and very close to the town where the incident happened. As far as transferring her to a burn unit; there are not specialized burn units at every hospital and time is important. Moving her immediately gave her the best chance. But I do think the center dropped the ball by not notifying her mother as it happened. They would not have let her travel with her daughter, due to infection risks, but she could have started heading to Mobile.
Tort reform, tort reform, tort reform.
Signed,
Congressional Republicans
Absolutely!!!
Does anybody know how tort reform could affect this case? What are the rules? What are the limits?
It all depends on how big, how loud and how bad the tort smells.
To say it is rare would be a vast under statement. But there are instances whereby people have spontaneously combusted without any ignition sources other than themselves. Not meaning to sound like a kook, but read about this in a medical reference book 30+ years ago. Once a body starts to burn it can be self sustaining as the body fat becomes the fuel. Think of bacon fire on top of your stove and you get the idea. Search "Spontaneous Human Combustion" on Google,a coroner is cited in the death of man who burned completely up by himself. Sounds like science fiction, but it is a possibility.
Yes, there are odd things in this world, but that's not what happened here. This is a case of gross negligence on the part of the hospital staff.
She said "No" as the doctor was giving her a "Herman"
Maybe she said "No" as the doctor was trying to give her a "Clinton."