PESHAWAR, Jan 6: Non-existence of burns wards at the city’s hospital has become a source of agony for the patients, as most of these patients die of even simple burn injuries, doctors told Dawn on Monday.
There is no specialised unit in the three — Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) , Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) and Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) — have no facilities where poor victims of burn injuries have to suffer a great deal.
A case in point is of 18-year-old Saima, who sustained burn injuries in a match factory in Mardan district a month ago. She was in the surgical ward in one of the hospitals but there was none to give her a word of consolation or tell her what was lying ahead in future. She was later shifted to a Rehman Medical Institute where Dr Obaidullah, a plastic surgeon is looking after her.
She needs daily dressing, blood tests and frequent blood transfusions. She also underwent three to four sessions of skin grafting. Her thighs burned extensively and no medication seemed to relieve her pain.
She was lucky as her employers bore all the expenses of her treatment, the cost of which ran into hundreds of thousands of rupees. She was also luckier as four of her colleagues died of burn injuries in Kharian. All the same, she is going to end up with permanent scars on her face and hands.
Statistics at the three major hospitals suggest that average 1,200 burn patients are admitted every month. Almost all of them with major burn injuries die of their injuries.
With the establishment of a proper burn units, at least 75 per cent of these patients can survive, said Dr Obaidullah. According to him, majority of the burn patients are either children or young adults. He said the establishment of a ward would also provide training opportunities to the doctors, nurses and paramedics.
The cost of burn care is so high that even rich people cannot afford it. In 1991, the average cost of a burn patient per day was US $ 264 in Billericay, UK against the $ 110 of an ICU patient. Here in the absence of proper unit the average cost comes to about Rs 5,000. This is why the private sector has also ignored this aspect of health care.
As most poor patients are the victim of such injuries, this aspect has been ignored. Even for the rich class, the fate is doomed to death as the patient cannot be flown to any developed country for good care.
Majority of the burn patients usually get wounds on the whole body. Thus they cannot lie on one side or the other. They require frequent change of dressing. The dressing material is expensive and is used in larger quantities.
Fifty per cent of the patients are less than five years old whereas 35 per cent of them happens to be girls and women between the ages of 15 and 35 years.
The rest of the injuries are borne by men of young age and women of ages over 35.
Wapda linemen and labourers working under high-tension electricity lines are other category of victims when the high voltage can literally lift off scalp from their heads.
Doctors suggest that domestic burn injuries should be treated under running tap water for at least half to one hour. This actually minimises damage to the cells. Superficial burn injuries are very painful but luckily heal without much scarring if treated by a plastic surgeon.
