- Title: New Zealand burns surgeons taken to the limits of expertise - specialist
- Date: 11th December 2019
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (DECEMBER 11, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ENTRANCE TO BURNS UNIT AT CHELSEA AND WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL VARIOUS OF LEAD SURGEON IN PLASTICS AND SKIN GRAFT TEAM OF THE BURNS UNIT AT CHELSEA AND WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL, JORGE VILLAPALOS, SITTING AT COMPUTER ON WARD MEDICAL BOOKS ON BURNS ON TABLE (SOUNDBITE) (English) CONSULTANT PLASTIC SURGEON AT THE CHELSEA AND WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL, JORGE VILLAPALOS, SAYING: "Characteristically we have always got enough skin to cover 100 percent of a total body surface area. What we need to analyse here is that these are exceptional circumstances by any stretch of the imagination and to illustrate this I would say that our colleagues in New Zealand have had maybe the work of a whole year thrown at them in a single day." VILLAPALOS DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) LEAD SURGEON IN PLASTICS AND SKIN GRAFT TEAM OF THE BURNS UNIT AT CHELSEA AND WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL, JORGE VILLAPALOS, SAYING: "I can only think of them (New Zealand specialists) working extremely hard and being taken potentially to the limit of their ability. But I am in no doubt that the team in New Zealand, which as I say, are the leaders in the world of open surgery will be able to effectively provide successful outcomes to all of these patents. And certainly our thoughts and support in whichever manner can be provided goes to them." VILLAPALOS DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) LEAD SURGEON IN PLASTICS AND SKIN GRAFT TEAM OF THE BURNS UNIT AT CHELSEA AND WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL, JORGE VILLAPALOS, SAYING: "They (surgery) are very complex, they are very radical. They involve the use of a phenomenal amount of blood products, they can be very, very lengthy. Let's also not forget that is only the first of many surgeries, and the first of many surgeries that may involve change of dressings, change the allograft - the donor skin - do transplantation of the own patient's skin, what we call auto grafting. And get those patients out of the cycle of intensive care management and make them return to a degree of functionality. But you are submitting them in the meantime to very severe, very radical, lengthy operations that actually test their resilience and challenge their physiology. So, to cut a long story short, they are very lengthy surgeries that are done in a multi-disciplinary fashion with an aim to preserve as much tissue as possible but this is undoubtedly very, very radical bloodletting and complex." VILLAPALOS DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) LEAD SURGEON IN PLASTICS AND SKIN GRAFT TEAM OF THE BURNS UNIT AT CHELSEA AND WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL, JORGE VILLAPALOS, SAYING: "So these are individuals, any individual can donate a part of their corneas or kidneys or other parts of the body that agree to have their skin donated for the use of medical needs. In this case all of the individuals are appropriately tested, they have their skin harvested and that skin is effectively stored in tissue banks in either freezing conditions or under chemicals that preserve their viability and whenever it is required, like in this sad circumstances, it is transported to those areas." VILLAPALOS DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) LEAD SURGEON IN PLASTICS AND SKIN GRAFT TEAM OF THE BURNS UNIT AT CHELSEA AND WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL, JORGE VILLAPALOS, SAYING: "I assume that our colleagues in New Zealand will have contacted a tissue bank or have been put into contact with companies that effectively provide large amounts of this donor side skin. Providing that that skin is stored in the tissue banks it is only a matter of putting that together in appropriate storage or appropriate preservation methods, like freeze dried or chemically preserved and being transported to New Zealand by plane at the earliest possibility available. So that skin exists and the challenge is essentially to provide so much skin in such a short period of time, so they may need more than one tissue bank or more than one company to provide such a service." VARIOUS OF VILLAPALOS ON WARD VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF CHELSEA AND WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL
- Embargoed: 25th December 2019 17:55
- Keywords: New Zealand volcano eruption bodies burns challenge identification recovery specialist
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Earthquakes/Volcanoes/Tsunami
- Reuters ID: LVA001B9J95QF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Surgical teams treating dozens of casualties suffering horrific burns after a deadly volcano eruption in New Zealand will be tested to the limits of their expertise, a London-based specialist said on Wednesday (December 11).
Jorge Villapalos, consultant in plastic surgery and burns at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, said his colleagues in New Zealand were world leaders in their field.
"I can only think of them working extremely hard and being taken potentially to the limit of their abilities," he told Reuters.
"I would say that our colleagues in New Zealand have had maybe the work of a whole year thrown at them in a single day," he said.
Patients would be submitted to "very severe, very radical, lengthy operations".
Skin from donors used to treat such injuries is stored in tissue banks under freezing conditions or preserved by chemicals.
Villapalos said he assumed surgeons will have contacted a tissue bank or companies that can provide large amounts of donor skin that could be flown to New Zealand.
According to a Sky News report that interviewed Dr. Peter Watson, clinical director at Middlemore Hospital where the national burns unit is, New Zealand has ordered 1.2 million sq. cm of human skin from abroad to treat victims.
"That skin exists and the challenge is essentially to provide so much skin in such a short period of time. So they may need more than one tissue bank or more than one company to provide such a service," he said.
Twenty seven people have suffered severe burns to 30% or more of their body and 22 are also on airway support due to the severity of their burns, New Zealand medical authorities have said.
They say they will need large amounts of skin to treat the patients and surgical teams are working around the clock.
Six people were killed in Monday's (December 9) explosion at White Island, which lies some 50 km (30 miles) off the mainland, with another nine officially listed as missing, and 30 injured.
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