Word: burnes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Yurt, 52, began specializing in burn treatment while he was a doctor in the U.S. Army. Since he took over the burn unit, he has expanded the team to include highly specialized nurses and even a chaplain, who ministers not only to patients and their families but also to staff members, who are exposed daily to unnerving sights and suffering...
...team members are particularly motivated by the fact that they too were once burn victims. Others, like Dr. Harvey Himel, a plastic surgeon on the team, are attracted by a long-term association with the patients. "It's the real partnership with the the patients that I treasure," Himel says. "I always feel that I'm connecting with them." That connection can last for years. Himel follows his patients from their most desperate moments immediately after a burn, through skin grafts, follow-up visits and sometimes through reconstructive and cosmetic surgery...
...York burn specialists and their patients are benefiting from some remarkable recent advances in operating-room techniques and a more sophisticated understanding of how the body reacts to severe burns. "Patients who 20 or 30 years ago would have died now survive the injury," says Lisa Staiano-Coico, dean of research at Cornell University Medical College and the team's wound-healing specialist. "Now the issue becomes one of how do we ameliorate the burn wound, how do we improve the rate of healing with less scarring. Now it's gone beyond survival...
Second- and third-degree burns, the kind treated by the New York team, call for much more care and, often, extended hospital stays. Penetrating below the epidermis, second-degree burns reach into the upper layer of the dermis, a thin layer of cells 1 to 3 mm thick that contains blood vessels, nerves, hair follicles and sweat glands. This upper portion can slowly regenerate and heal if damaged. But if the burn is third degree and destroys the dermis down to fat and muscle, skin grafts are needed for effective healing...
When the skin suffers a deep third-degree burn, two major regulatory systems go awry. The body loses its ability to control its temperature, causing burn patients to shiver even in temperatures as high as 75[degrees]F. Consequently, burn-unit rooms are often kept around 90[degrees]F, and a burn team's first priority is to warm the patients with heated fluids or heat shields suspended above the patient...