Bringing burn care into focus

Burn injuries not only cause a great number of fatalities across the world but are also the most traumatic in nature.

You will be surprised to know that death due to burns are the fourth leading cause of death from unintentional injury in the USA and results in 1.4 million injuries every year while approximately 330,000 deaths are recorded per year worldwide.

Hardly a day goes by in Pakistan when we do not hear of fatalities due to burns.

Some are caused by road accidents when vehicles that collide suddenly catch fire and this is very common in transport vehicles where entire families in some cases can be wiped out in an instant.

No wonder there is a high annual incidence of burns in Pakistan — approximately 1388 to 100,000 as compared to an estimated global annual incidence of 110/100,000.

The latest incident, which is not only heart wrenching but should be an eye opener for the authorities happened in Hyderabad where eleven members of a family suffered burns after a fire broke out on their premises recently due to accumulation of gas from a leaked pipe.

Seven of the victims later died during treatment and more fatalities were expected. They were all family members of Ravi, a paramedic at Liaquat University Hospital’s (LUH) City branch.

He and his wife escaped as they were in another room on top of the one that bore the brunt of the blast. Not long ago also in Hyderabad there was a blast in an LNG cylinder shop in which also more than a dozen people perished.

Apart from the severity of burns it was the lack of hospital facilities in Hyderabad and actually the whole of interior Sindh that added to the casualties. Just imagine a severely burnt person being ferried all the way from Hyderabad to Karachi.

This is a nightmarish situation and needs to be addressed. In Karachi too there is only one burns unit facility at Civil Hospital and the last time I visited this facility it wasn’t exactly up to the mark but then that was in early nineties.

I had gone to the Karachi Press Club for a cup of tea in the evening and there were preparations going on for some tea and snacks after a function.

Suddenly there were cries and shouting and I saw a young man engulfed in flames running towards what used to be a games room at the time. He was Somi, a clerk employed by the club whose nylon clothing had caught fire while trying to light an oil lamp under the food dispenser.

Somehow the members put out the fire and I put him in my car to take him to Jinnah Hospital, which was the largest and closest to the club. It was a nightmarish journey but when we reached the hospital there was no one to take care of the burnt victim.

The staff did send a message to the doctor on duty but he refused to come, saying he is a plastic surgeon and cannot intervene at this stage.

We were told to take him to Civil Hospital, which we did (later he was taken to a private hospital) but during all this poor Somi suffered and died a few days afterwards. This can be the story of several others who get caught in explosions and subsequent burn injuries and suffer before their near and dear ones to ultimately depart from this world.

Apart from the lack of burn facilities there is also a glaring lack of safety procedures that lead to such incidents. Substandard LPG cylinders are rampant in the market and ready to explode specially in the kind of weather we have been experiencing lately. Also having worked in a chemical company I know that all such combustible material, including chemicals, should be stored category-wise as some have very high combustible rates and can engulf entire shopping centers within minutes. Clearly marked and safely stored many tragedies can be averted.

In Karachi we have a well-equipped heart facility and several private hospitals that offer other services but we still do not have a state-of-the-art burns hospital even though burning incidents are increasing and young and old are losing their lives.

Hopefully, in Karachi and in interior of Sindh such facilities will be provided on an urgent basis to save the burn victims of the province from the unbearable suffering they now have to endure.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024