Rare Recovery: 2-Year-Old Suffering From 60 Percent Burn Discharged Successfully After 45 Days
Pune, December 21, 2020: In a rare case of the total recovery, a 2-year-old baby boy who was 60 percent burnt is saved successfully by doctors at Noble hospital. In spite of multiple challenges, the doctors were able to discharge the boy after 45 days recently.
Aman Seth (name changed) accidentally dragged the hot water vessel over himself. When this incident happened at Aman’s home, his parents immediately brought him to the hospital. Under the critical condition, he was admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). He had severe burn totalling 60 percent of his body area.
Out of the total 60 percent burn, doctors said that Aman was suffering from a 20 percent third-degree burn. The third-degree burn is a severe burn that often leads to the destruction of the entire skin. This burn goes to the innermost layer of the skin making the burn site look white.
Doctors mentioned that when he was admitted to the hospital, a child was having severe water loss as most of the skin barrier was lost. This lead to low BP and reduced blood supply to major organs of the body. But, the child was successfully stabilised for the first few hours in PICU.
Doctors mentioned that the debridement procedure was offered to him immediately when he was admitted. “In this, initially we cleaned the skin by removing foreign debris, infection, and other residual material. Collagen dressing which helps wound healing was done. For the third-degree burns, we performed tangential excision of the burnt skin followed by the skin grafting procedure. It is a surgical procedure that involves removing skin from one area of the body and transplanting it to any other area of the body. Once the patient was stable we shifted the patient from PICU to the general ward,” said Dr Abhishek Ghosh, a cosmetic surgeon from Noble hospital.
Treating the young boy with a 20 percent third-degree burn was a challenging task for doctors. Dr Shreegopal Bhandari, a paediatrician from Noble Hospital, said, “Around 60 percent burn for small kids becomes an intense injury because the body surface area of kids is less when compared with adults. In the cases where a child is suffering from 60 percent burn, the mortality is also very high. According to medical journals, the mortality rate in a child below five years, where there is a major component of third-degree burns is as high as 60 percent. Keeping the infections away was a challenging task as a large area of the skin was lost and skin is the major protective barrier against infection. These cases are very challenging from the anaesthesia point of view too and need highly skilled anaesthetics. We ensured that dressing is done properly and the child does not catch any infection.”
After satisfactory wound healing, the child was discharged. Doctors mentioned that he would be able to live a normal life now. “We are happy that our child is completely recovered. When the accident happened, seeing the condition of our child we had lost all our hopes. But doctors counselled us and ensured that the child will recover. We followed all the instructions given by the doctors and we are so happy that our child is back to normal routine now,” said his parents.
Dr Minakshi Nalbale- Bhosale, Pediatric Surgeon from Sassoon Hospital said, “Managing a young child with third-degree burns is a challenging task. Proper ICU care, optimal fluid resuscitation and infection control are critical in managing such cases, which are often associated with high morbidity and/ or mortality. Primary prevention of such injuries by parental education is the need of the hour. The child should always be kept away from the source of fire or hot water.”
