Waking up Burned: Surgical Fires Seriously Injure Unknowing Patients
Because all the elements that cause fires are typically present in operating rooms, and surgical personnel may not be prepared for putting out fires, patients can suffer critical or even fatal burns.

May 20, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Surgeries are supposed to repair or replace damaged body parts so that people can heal and experience a better quality of life. During some medical procedures, however, patients are further injured when doctors or other medical professionals trigger surgical fires. Because all of the elements that cause fires are typically present in operating rooms, and surgical personnel may not be prepared for putting out fires, patients can suffer critical or even fatal burns.

Burned During Surgery

For one Tulsa, Oklahoma woman who thought she was at the end of a difficult journey with breast cancer, another battle has begun. In late 2009, a fire erupted during a surgery to reconstruct Connie Plumlee's breasts, which had been removed when she underwent a double mastectomy two years earlier. Plumlee sustained severe and painful burns on her cheeks, lips, chin and neck, as well as inside her mouth and on her tongue, which disfigured her face and prevented her from eating or drinking for months.

According to a lawsuit filed by Plumlee and her husband, the fire started when her surgeon turned on a cauterizing tool just after swabbing Plumlee with alcohol. This caused both the surgical drapes and Plumlee to catch fire and melt the oxygen tube in her mouth. When she woke up following the surgery and fire, her head covered in bandages, Plumlee had no idea what had happened until a staff member told her she had been burned. While she struggles to heal and move forward, other patients can learn from her story.

Ignited by Ignorance

Based on data gathered by the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System, there are approximately 650 surgical fires every year in American hospitals. Surgical fires can be prevented, but typically occur as a result of careless medical mistakes and ignorance of fire basics. One example is when operating room staff allows oxygen to build up under surgical drapes, so when electrical tools are started the heat combines with the oxygen to create a spark. According to the Emergency Care Research Institute (ECRI), a leading organization on patient safety, the heat, fuel and oxidizing agent needed to ignite fires are commonly used in operating rooms.

The entire surgical team, through fire training, can learn to control these components and spare patients the pain and suffering of burn injuries. While surgeons tend to operate the lasers, cauterizing tools or other surgical instruments that produce heat, nurses generally manage fuels that feed fires, such as alcohol, linens, gauze, ointments and tubing. In addition, anesthesiologists use oxidizers like pure oxygen, oxygen mixtures or nitrous oxide to keep patients sedated. When all three of these elements mix during a surgery, fires can start either on or in a patient or on various flammable surfaces surrounding their bodies. Even though surgical fires may minimally impair medical equipment or supplies, they can cause catastrophic harm to sleeping victims.

Scarred for Life

Patients hurt in surgical fires can suffer serious injuries. These include first, second or third degree burns to the skin or other areas of the body. During some operations the surgical site may be open when a fire ignites, so burns may be either external or internal. Surgical fire burns most likely occur in or around patients' mouths or airways or around their heads, including on their faces, eyes or ears. The hair that covers these areas may also be singed in even minor fires.

Surgical fires typically do not cause a high number of deaths, as only around two people die from these burns each year. However, the severe pain and scarring that survivors of surgical fires endure every day following their burn injuries is beyond comprehension. In addition, knowing that simple operating room precautions or procedural fire drills could have been performed to prevent surgical fires and patient injuries makes these types of incidents inexcusable and worthy of legal action.

Fight Surgical Fires with Fire

Victims of surgical burns, like Connie Plumlee, were completely at the mercy of their doctors and other operating room personnel when they were seriously injured. Because reasonable medical professionals can help to avoid tragedies like surgical fires, they reveal the blatant negligence and culpability of doctors and nurses when they happen. For patients who experience surgical burns, medical malpractice lawsuits are one way they can get the fire they need and to fight surgical fires.

If you or a loved one experienced minor to severe burns during a surgery, you may have been the victim of a surgical fire caused by the negligence of medical professionals. To discuss your legal options and rights, contact a local medical malpractice attorney. No one deserves to suffer pain or disfigurement due to surgical burns, especially when they could have been prevented. Holding the hospital, doctors and nurses accountable for their actions may stop them from hurting other patients during future surgeries and help you and your family to move forward with your lives.

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