Pie chart

This is one of those rare events- suddenly burning up while lying on the operating table. The reason this happens is because many combustible gases like high levels of oxygen and nitrous oxide ( laughing gas) are used during surgery and medical prodecures. Yes, once those drapes light up it can turn into an inferno real fast. Predisposing situations- 1.sometimes configuration of the surgical drapes result in oxygen buildup 2. insufficient drying time after applying alcohol based skin -prep solutions is a cause of fire 3. laser surgery  around the face, head and neck 4. surgery inside the trachea (windpipe). The surgeon uses an ignition source and then … boom OR inferno. It seems that the right procedure to put out the flames was not followed! There is a protocol- take out the breathing tube, turn off the gases, pour some water on, and get a CO2 fire extinguisher. This is what I mean when I say don’t step into the operating room when the equipment is old and antiquated and doesn’t work.

Tags: Operating Room Fires

This entry was posted on Friday, September 18th, 2009 at 9:43 am and is filed under In the News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.