Patient dies after catching fire during surgery

Source: MSNBC/AP

ST. LOUIS - A woman died after being severely burned in a flash fire while undergoing surgery, a rare but vexing dilemma in operating rooms.

Janice McCall, 65, of Energy, Ill., died Sept. 8 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., six days after being burned on the operating table at Heartland Regional Medical Center in Marion, Ill., her family's attorney said.

Attorney Robert Howerton said he had requested medical records from the Marion hospital and that he had few details about what happened. He declined to say why McCall was having surgery.


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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, said Mark Bruley, vice president for accident and forensic investigation at the ECRI Institute, a nonprofit health research agency.

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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.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32909833/ns/health-health_care/

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Horrible way to go!

Surviving burns is the hard part.

This used to be a huge problem before non flammable surgical gases were introduced.

The old cotton drapes used to catch fire, too, especially when they were saturated with oxygen.

Back in the bad old days of flammable anesthesia gases, a surgical fire could be ignited by static electricity, no cautery needed.

once again.

which is good, because she could have died without the surgery, and I would have freaked, had I known earlier, before giving permission.

I would think such danger could be prevented, if only to keep the MDs from becoming Hot Wings.

and dropping the 02 concentration might reduce it still more.

One or two deaths a year out of millions of surgeries give us great odds.

except for the surgical field? Are the drapes flame retardant?

but oxygen soaked material doesn't burn as much as it EXPLODES.

By the time the extinguisher is grabbed and the button pressed, the patient is already burned. Oxygen saturated skin burns quickly.

Everything is as flame retardant as sterilization practices will allow.

This is not a huge problem these days, statistically speaking. It used to be a huge problem in the past when the anesthesia gases were flammable.

It's a dramatic problem in the tiny minority of cases where it occurs, though, so it's a real attention grabber.

demeter's daughter.

I hope to get her home next week.

Not what I needed to hear. :(

...but it has risk of its own, and I have no qualified opinion!

I worked for a catalyst company, purging and refilling catalyst components for chemical plants. Some catalyst compounds will ignite in the presence of oxygen, so we would flood the tank or compartment with nitrogen, keeping oxygen levels below 6%.

The bad part is that you have to have supplied air or risk suffocation. I had two teammates die do to nitrogen inhalation. It's not painful, you just pass out and don't wake up. And this is the reason I left the company.

My thought was that if the surgical facilities had a way to diffuse the oxygen, the risk could be further limited...

Instead of using pure oxygen, they are talking about increasing ventilation volume slightly and using an oxygen/room air mixture.

Oxygen demands are increased during surgery, so they'll never completely get away from using it, but reducing the concentration around the patient will likely reduce the risk.

How awful.

More on the story here: http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/local/story/Autopsy-Confirms-Fire-Killed-Hospital-Patient/h1GsdX3lj0Cy_rqUDWTvCA.cspx?rss=675

earlier story about it here:

http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/local/story/Fire-In-Operating-Room-At-Local-Hospital/gmW_OELdI0mW_BpOS_eDog.cspx