Accidentally caught on fire - during surgery!

[MickinMD ★]

Romanian woman dies after accidentally catching fire during surgery

A Romanian woman with pancreatic cancer has died after she was badly burned last week during a surgical procedure, according to reports.

Surgeons at a Bucharest hospital had treated the 66-year-old patient with an alcohol-based disinfectant on Dec. 22 before using an electric scalpel that caused combustion. The patient ignited “like a torch,” wrote Romanian politician Emanuel Ungureanu on his Facebook page.

A nurse reportedly doused the patient in a bucket of water to put out the fire. The woman suffered burns to 40 percent of her body and she died a week later.

Deputy Minister Horatiu Moldovan said the “surgeons should have been aware that it is prohibited to use an alcohol-based disinfectant during surgical procedures performed with an electric scalpel.”

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50947404 and https://www.foxnews.com/world/romanian-woman-dies-set-on-fire-surgery

 

 

[Prophet Zacharia]

This is one of the reasons I am making avoiding surgery in Romania as my New Years resolution.

[bikeman564™]

Just now, Prophet Zacharia said:

This is one of the reasons I am making avoiding surgery in Romania as my New Years resolution.

I had mine in the good ol' 'merica

[Prophet Zacharia]

Just now, bikeman564™ said:

I had mine in the good ol' 'merica

And you didn’t catch fire during the procedure and die, did you?

[Kzoo]

6 minutes ago, bikeman564™ said:

I had mine in the good ol' 'merica

Boring...

 

[Longjohn ★]

During my skin cancer surgery three weeks ago they used some kind of disinfectant but I think it had all dried up by the time they used the arc welder to cauterize the incision. I didn’t catch on fire.

[jsharr ★]

I wonder if she was hot?

[Prophet Zacharia]

2 minutes ago, jsharr said:

I wonder if she was hot?

Until they doused her with water.

[Razors Edge ★]

23 minutes ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

This is one of the reasons I am making avoiding surgery in Romania as my New Years resolution.

I added Bulgaria and Moldova to my list - just in case!

[MickinMD ★]

When I went to IIT in the 70's, most of us scholarship grad students from America or Europe had already published research based on extensive lab research and could safely work unsupervised in the labs.  But many of the Asian grad students had done very little access to lab work while earning their bachelor's degrees in India, Taiwan, etc.

There were a number of times when we Americans would be setting up or regulating a synthesis in the fume hood of a large lab room, turn around, and get shocked by what we saw the inexperienced Asian grad students doing with flammable stuff around a flame or electrical instruments.

They were just as smart as we were, but didn't have the labs back home to gain experience and really needed supervision.

I wonder if the Rumanian surgeons have the same problem with electric scalpels and if their superiors were just as lax in providing adequate training?

[Longjohn ★]

It sounds to me like overuse of the alcohol antiseptic. That stuff evaporates very quickly, I can’t imagine the skin still being wet when the incision is started.

[Kzoo]

13 minutes ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

Until they doused her with water.

And spread the flame from the 5% of her body on fire to the 40% that ended up burned.

 

[Razors Edge ★]

10 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

It sounds to me like overuse of the alcohol antiseptic. That stuff evaporates very quickly, I can’t imagine the skin still being wet when the incision is started.

Yeah - I wonder what they used.  I also would think a thin layer of the alcohol stuff would also burn off almost immediately.

[jsharr ★]

29 minutes ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

Until they doused her with water.

censored response.  Sometimes I stop and think before hitting the submit reply button

[Longjohn ★]

19 minutes ago, Kzoo said:

And spread the flame from the 5% of her body on fire to the 40% that ended up burned.

 

Actually water is a proper way to put out an alcohol fire (as long as you know it is alcohol and not petroleum based). Alcohol readily mixes with water, diluting it to where it will not burn.

[Kzoo]

3 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

Actually water is a proper way to put out an alcohol fire (as long as you know it is alcohol and not petroleum based). Alcohol readily mixes with water, diluting it to where it will not burn.

There you go again... Letting facts get in the way.

EDIT - • Water will initially spread the flame, but diluting the alcohol will eventually reduce its concentration too low to support combustion.

[Tizeye]

1 hour ago, MickinMD said:

When I went to IIT in the 70's, most of us scholarship grad students from America or Europe had already published research based on extensive lab research and could safely work unsupervised in the labs.  But many of the Asian grad students had done very little access to lab work while earning their bachelor's degrees in India, Taiwan, etc.

There were a number of times when we Americans would be setting up or regulating a synthesis in the fume hood of a large lab room, turn around, and get shocked by what we saw the inexperienced Asian grad students doing with flammable stuff around a flame or electrical instruments.

They were just as smart as we were, but didn't have the labs back home to gain experience and really needed supervision.

I wonder if the Rumanian surgeons have the same problem with electric scalpels and if their superiors were just as lax in providing adequate training?

Probably the same Asian grad students from India, Taiwan, etc who couldn't get accepted on scholarship to USA, Germany, Canada, Great Britain, Canada, etc and ended up in Romania for training.

[Kirby]

I hate when that happens.

[Ralphie ★]

Alcohol fires are bad because there is no visible flame.  At least not for methanol.

[Airehead]

And in the list this thread has a hot tag.