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CHAPEL HILL — The UNC Burn Center received three patients Tuesday morning from Haiti, two weeks after a crushing earthquake struck the island nation.
The patients were flown into RDU early Tuesday morning and immediately transported by ambulance to the N.C. Jaycee Burn Center at UNC Hospitals. A fourth patient was transported to the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center Burn Center.
Most of the burn victims from Haiti have been transported to hospitals in Florida, but last week North Carolina was sent a request to receive burn patients who could not be accommodated in Florida.
On Monday, UNC received word that the patients would arrive early Tuesday morning at RDU, said Bruce Cairns, director of the UNC center.
Working with the state and Orange County emergency management services, they scrambled to prepare for the patients’ arrival, making sure they could be transported immediately from the airport to the Burn Center.
Two family members, including a boy who was with his parent, who was one of the patients, accompanied the group, and they, too, were welcomed at the hospital, where they took showers and received clean clothes and their first full meal.
The patients had burns on 10 percent to 35 percent of their bodies, and they had not received any specialized treatment for their wounds before arriving at the hospital, Cairns said.
Each will need surgery and skin grafts, but first doctors must make sure the bacteria level has decreased and the wounds are clean. It’s likely one patient will have surgery today and will need other surgeries in the future, Cairns said.
Samuel Jones, a doctor in the Burn Center, said their prognosis is excellent now that they are receiving proper treatment for their burns. Once the skin grafts are completed, they should return to full function, he said.
Burns can heal without proper treatment, but a patient with burns on the hands could lose function of them, and scar tissue on the legs could make it impossible for someone to walk, resulting in an amputation, Cairns said.
Randy Kearns, the state burn disaster program coordinator, said UNC Hospitals could receive more patients from Haiti.
“We don’t know the full extent of it,” he said.
Since the earthquake struck, the doctors and nurses at UNC Hospitals have been wanting to respond to the tragedy, Cairns said.
“Our hearts ache, and we want to reach out,” he said.
Now that they have patients and heard their stories, it has hit home, he said.
“We can put a name and a face to the tragedy, and it becomes very personal,” Cairns said.
