Surgical Fires are Rare, but Preventable
The Indiana Injury Lawyer Blog has posted an entry about the risks of surgical fires and how to prevent them. There are roughly 550-650 surgical fires a year, with about 1-2 being fatal and 30 resulting in serious injuries.
The risk of being the victim of a surgical fire (or "flash fire") is rather low, but the article suggests that it is entirely too high considering the fires are completely preventable.
According to ECRI forensic investigators, most flash fires occur when high oxygen levels cause material like surgical sheets in the operating room, to ignite. High oxygen levels can often be found under these sheets or drapes. Other common causes of flash fires are alcohol-based cleaners. The cleaner must be fully dried before laying out the electronic surgical equipment. Otherwise, the vapors can ignite, causing a sudden flash fire.
The article brings up the recent case of Janice McCall, a 65 year old woman who sustained fatal injuries from a surgical fire in a hospital in Illinois. She was badly burned before operating room staff could put out the fire; no one else was injured. Ms. McCall was rushed to another hospital in Tennessee with severe burns and died six days later.
