GOD FORBID if you suffer burn injuries in the State capital. There are only six beds in city hospitals to take care of patients of burns. Six beds to cater to over 40 lakh population! Amazing!
Proposal for a specialized Burn Unit prepared by the department of Plastic Surgery at KGMU is gathering dust for last six years in the corridors of power. Leaving the patients to the mercy of general care.
Every year in the months of April, May and June burn injuries are common with half-a-dozen patients coming to hospitals every day. Some get the six-bed specialised unit at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (Civil) hospital and rest get the risky general care. Two patients of burn injury had died last year. The situation is worse during Dipawali time. “More separate burn units are a must because the level of treatment involves care. Patients can get deformities if the treatment doesn’t go with the injury,” says KGMU HoD Plastic Surgery Dr AK Singh.
A lack of expertise may prolong the treatment. A patient who can get back to normal life in a month may take six months and that too with deformity.
{{/usCountry}}A lack of expertise may prolong the treatment. A patient who can get back to normal life in a month may take six months and that too with deformity.
{{/usCountry}}The burn unit proposal prepared by KGMU included a separate building, exclusive Operating Theatre and Intensive Care Unit, separate ward, a dressing station, pathology, portable X-Ray unit and physiology facility for rehabilitation. The Rs 9 crore proposal has been sent to the State government six times but in vain. A fresh proposal would be sent this week. Now it all depends upon the will of the bureaucrats. Contrary to the speed of KGMU, a first of its kind Sushrut Plastic Surgery Sansthan is coming up just in front of the medical university. It is expected to start functioning from August with an 8- bed ICU and 20-bed general ward for burn patients.
The project has been given shape by three city-based plastic surgeons Dr RK Mishra, Dr Ritesh Purwar and Dr Sumit Malhotra.
“It is an effort which may contribute to the society but as the burn injuries are very expensive and time-taking, efforts need to come up from the government sector also,” stated Dr RK Mishra.
As per the statistics based on secondary data on burn patients at KGMU, about 35 per cent burn patients die in general care wards while another 35 per cent Leave Against Medical Advice (LAMA). These patients either fear infection or run away in lack of funds for treatment. Only 30 per cent patients survive and they are the ones who have less than 50 per cent burn injury.
KGMU roughly gets 400 patients of burn injury every year and most of them suffer just because of lack of burn unit.
“Burn intensity is directly connected with survival. If one is burnt by 50 per cent his survival rate is left only 50 per cent and if the patient is burnt 80 per cent only 20 per cent would be the chance for survival,” says Dr Mishra.