Woman dies after catching fire during surgery

MARION, Ill. — An attorney says a Southern Illinois woman died six days after being accidentally set ablaze during an operation at a Marion hospital.

www.stltoday.com...


Holy Cow! They don't go into much detail as to what happened but this is strange. I will be keeping my eye on this.

I'm getting my tonsils out in a few months... I read that story earlier today and now I'm petrified!

I'm betting it was a spark and like a leak in the oxygen mask that caught a small fire and then burned the patient.

reply to post by kleverone


I would assume some sort of combination of a faulty oxygen line and either a short, or the docs were cauterizing something. The article did describe it as a "flash fire" which screams oxygen fire to me.



[edit on 18-9-2009 by Karilla]

Wow, Not good at all

Most of these kind of "Flash fires" are caused by the electrical tools that get a build up of oxygen under the surgical drapes.

from reading a little on this it happens about 600 times a year! Which is a very small number when you think of how many ops take place, but kinda odd then that we have not heard of the others,

I cant imagine how traumatic it must be for the family involved,

Concern over such blazes waned after the 1970s, when highly flammable agents such as ether gave way to safer anesthetics.

But worries have mounted in recent years with increased use of electrosurgical devices and the replacement of cloth hospital drapes with those made of more-flammable, disposable synthetic fabric. Bruley's organization has recommended that anesthesiologists stop using 100 percent oxygen and deliver only what the patient needs, perhaps by diluting the oxygen concentration with room air when surgical tools such as electronic scalpels and cauterizers that could ignite a fire are in use.

"What we've been advocating for years is that the open delivery of oxygen under the drapes essentially has to stop," with some exceptions such as cardiac pacemaker surgery or operations involving a neck artery, Bruley said.

source AP

reply to post by kleverone


The woman was on O2. Surgical drapes overlap, create pockets that O2 get trapped in. You use an ECU (electrocautery unit) spark, material, flame.
*poof*

Sadly it happens.

reply to post by kleverone


It's too bad. The fix is easy.
Stop using 100% oxygen!
Make it 50% oxygen/50% Nitrogen.

This same stupidity killed 3 astronauts in their capsule.
100% oxygen is dangerous.