As news broke that victims of the deadly fire at CFB Wainwright could overwhelm Alberta’s hospitals, Ontario burn specialists were trying to figure out how they could help.
uncertain
they → break → hospitals
Though details were still sparse, they knew the high stakes and brutal demands of treating dozens of patients with severe burns.
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they → know → burns
Patients in critical condition would likely need to be intubated and put on a breathing machine.
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Patients → need → machine
Those with the most extensive and deepest burns would need urgent surgeries, ideally within 24 to 72 hours.
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Those → need → hours
Hospitals could run out of dressings and other supplies, including their stockpiles of frozen donor skin.
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Hospitals → run → skin
“It’s a unique type of trauma,” said Dr. Alan Rogers, a burn surgeon at the Ross Tilley Burn Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
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Rogers → ’ → Centre
“Any burn centre, in any province, could be overwhelmed with the numbers that we believe are injured in this accident.
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we → overwhelm → accident
Even five severely burned patients could overwhelm available resources at any one time.”
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patients → burn → time
Specialists offer to help
Rogers said burn centres across Canada have offered help to their colleagues in Alberta, with some specialists volunteering to travel.
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specialists → offer → Alberta
He said Sunnybrook, the largest burn centre in Canada, has the capacity to take in several Alberta patients, and noted that the burn team has readied two operating rooms, checked their supplies of dressing materials and ensured the hospital’s skin bank has sufficient supply.
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bank → say → supply
“We stand ready to help as much as we possibly can,” Rogers said.
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Rogers → stand → ?
The fire killed four soldiers and injured dozens, including 19 in critical condition.
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fire → kill → condition
It’s not yet clear what help Alberta hospitals might need; an initial “Code Orange” calling for hospitals to free up beds for a mass casualty event was later called off.
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hospitals → ’ → event
The province has two dedicated burn centres, one in Edmonton and one in Calgary.
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province → have → Calgary
In a statement, Sunnybrook said its teams are in close touch with provincial and federal officials and have offered “any support needed to help those injured by the fire.”
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teams → say → fire
“As of right now, we have not been asked to take any patients but stand ready to do so,” the hospital said.
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hospital → ask → patients
Ontario’s Ministry of Health confirmed Monday afternoon that Alberta has not requested assistance but that Premier Doug Ford has stated the province “stands ready to help with the recovery efforts however we can.”
What is Canada’s capacity to treat burns
Dr. Marc Jeschke, a burn surgeon and director of the burn program at Hamilton Health Sciences, Ontario’s other primary burn centre, said his hospital has also offered help to Alberta colleagues, including patient transfers.
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hospital → confirm → transfers
He said Canada has 46 specialized beds for burn patients across 17 hospitals, with 14 at Sunnybrook and 10 in Hamilton, and that centre directors know each other and want to help.
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directors → say → other
“We told (Alberta colleagues) we’re here to support you,” said Jeschke, vice-president of research and innovation at Hamilton Health Sciences.
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Jeschke → tell → Sciences
How burn victims are treated
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victims → treat → ?
Patients with severe burns to more than 20 per cent of their total body surface area are “among the sickest patients in hospital” and need specialized care to survive, Jeschke said.
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Jeschke → need → care
He called burns to more than 40 to 60 per cent of a patient’s body “catastrophic.”
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He → call → body
Severely burned patients may need ventilation and intensive care, along with multiple surgeries, and often spend months recovering in hospital, Jeschke said.
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Jeschke → burn → hospital
He noted burns are extremely painful and that severe burns are life-threatening due to their high risk of infection.
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burns → note → infection
Some patients, Jeschke said, can take years to recover due to extensive skin grafting surgeries that lead to scarring and require intensive rehabilitation.
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that → say → rehabilitation
“There’s no guarantee that you will ever be the same,” he said.
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he → ’ → ?
“Which is what makes it so sad that so many people were involved in this tragedy.”
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people → make → tragedy
Rogers said the extent, depth and location of a patient’s burns will determine their treatment, while other trauma and inhalation injuries also play a role.
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injuries → say → role
He said deep burns often require skin grafting but that surgeons may use donated cadaver skin to temporarily replace burned tissue.
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surgeons → say → tissue
Much like organ donation, people can donate their skin after they die.
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they → donate → skin
Rogers said skin retrieved from a deceased person is screened for infection and quality, then processed and stored in antimicrobial fluid before it is cryopreserved.
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it → say → fluid
Sunnybrook’s skin bank, which Rogers said the hospital uses almost every day, typically has about 90,000 square centimetres of skin onsite.
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hospital → say → skin
He said that’s about enough to cover the entire body five times, though most patients don’t require that much.
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patients → say → much
Rogers called donor skin “life saving” because it allows for burn specialists to treat severe burns over multiple surgeries as they wait for patients to be stable enough to use their own skin for grafting.
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patients → call → grafting
He noted skin grafting “creates a new wound that has to heal.”
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that → note → wound
Though the goal is to help patients, and their families, get through the burn injury as smoothly as possible, Rogers said many will spend months in hospital.
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many → help → hospital
“It’s not just the injury itself, but its treatment … it can be a very traumatic process.”
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it → ’ → ?
The Aporia
