disastrous, disfiguring fires on the face, head and neck. The current
guidance is that when a patient needs supplemental oxygen, he
should have a tracheostomy tube or a laryngeal mask to prevent oxy-
gen from building up around the surgical site. That's a big change.
Q
What about when patientsneed supplemental oxygen?
MB:
It's ironic. Every surgery has a pulse oximetry probe on
the patient — technology that can monitor almost in real time
how much oxygen is needed for that patient. But what I've seen many,
many times are cases where patients were being given 100% oxygen,
then a fire broke out, and then, while treating the burn, still in a peri-
operative situation, the patient was given nothing but air. And yet the
pulse oximetry levels stayed the same throughout — 98 before and 98
O R F I R E S
