Today in Weird patientAustralian doctors saw their patient catch fire while they were operating on his heart.
In August 2018, a 60-year-old man pushed open the hospital door Austin Health from Melbourne to undergo emergency open heart surgery. He has a tear in the wall of the aorta, the largest artery in the human body that is connected to the heart through the left ventricle. The patient had several health problems in the past, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, and required coronary artery bypass surgery. Despite his history being known to doctors, there was nothing to predict the course of his operation.
On the operating table, the operation is already well underway when the surgeon notices that the patient’s lung is in a delicate position. Her pulmonary lobepulmonary lobe right is blocked under his sternum because of the areas swollen and damaged by his BCPO. Despite all the precautions taken, one of the bubbles on the lung bursts and causes a leak.airair important. To ensure the patient’s survival, the medical team decides to increase the SpeedSpeed of oxygen at 10 liters per minute with 100% oxygen saturation.
After this incident, the doctor grabbed a cauterizing device to continue the operation. But the electrocautery produces a spark and in a fraction of a second, the patient’s open torso bursts into flames. Fortunately, the doctors immediately extinguished the blaze which left no after-effects on the patient whose operation ended without further incident.
When the operating room catches fire
There FDAFDA estimates that there are between 500 and 600 operating room fires per year in the United States. Events which can have serious consequences for the patient affected by the flames. In a hospital in Bucharest, a patient “burned like a torch” while using an electrocautery. His skin had been disinfected with a product containingalcoholalcohol before the incident that cost him his life. In the United States, a young woman was disfigured by flames while a molemole on the face.
To appear, a fire needs three elements: a oxidantoxidantA combustiblecombustible and a source of heatheat. In the operating room, the oxidant is often a gasgas (oxygen or nitrous oxidenitrous oxide, for example) used by doctors during surgery or administered to patients; the fuel, the disposable sheets placed on the operating table and on the patient or the patient’s body itself, and the heat source which most of the time comes from an electrical instrument such as electrocautery or the electric scalpel. When these three elements are brought together, also called “the triangle of firefire “, then the flames come to life. Operating theaters are equipped with fire extinguishers to put them out, but the rapid reaction of medical teams is essential to avoid a tragedy.
