Patient catches fire during operation

A patient caught fire while undergoing an operation at a New York hospital, it has emerged. The blaze broke out when a medical instrument was used ‘in the presence of oxygen’ during a procedure at NYU Langone Medical Center. A report into the incident said that the patient was receiving oxygen through a mask linked […]

A patient caught fire while undergoing an operation at a New York hospital, it has emerged.
The blaze broke out when a medical instrument was used ‘in the presence of oxygen’ during a procedure at NYU Langone Medical Center.
A report into the incident said that the patient was receiving oxygen through a mask linked to an outlet on the wall when the fire happened.
According to the New York Post, which obtained the information though a Freedom of Information Law request, state investigators slammed the Medical Center for lapses in safety measures.
The Health Department report blanked out the name of the patient as well as the nature of the injuries they suffered.
Details including the exact instrument being used and the nature of the operation were also censored, the newspaper reports.
The incident happened in December 2014 amid a ‘failure’ in communications ‘between the surgeon and anesthesiologist,’ who, the report said, was not aware the instrument would be used ‘in the presence of oxygen.’
The heavily redacted report said: ‘When the surgeon used the (redacted) in the presence of oxygen, there was a spark escalating to a surgical fire that involved the (redacted) and the (redacted) and the patient.’
Investigators were told that a fire-risk assessment had been carried out before the surgery.
But the Department of Health declared an ‘immediate jeopardy situation’ on December 30, 2014 when they found no evidence of an ‘immediate plan’ to stop a repeat of the incident.
Around 650 surgical fires are reported yearly in America, though many are believed to fall under the radar, and there is no national database documenting the cases.

Culled from dailymail.co.uk