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O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4
O R F I R E S
I
t was New Year's
Eve 2002. Catherine
Reuter, MHA, was
waiting nervously for
an update on her
mother's aortic valve
replacement when
the surgeon sum-
moned her. As the
door closed behind her, she was sure she knew what was coming. "They
took me into the death room," she says. "Because every time they took
somebody in there, they came out crying. I figured it was my turn. I
expected them to tell me that my mom had died."
Her mother was alive, but the news was devastating. "He told me
they'd had an 'event' in the operating room and that she was burned,"
says Ms. Reuter. "When he said it was a fire, I looked at him like he was
crazy. 'You had a fire in your operating room?' He said, 'We had a fire on
your mother.' I was flabbergasted."
Her mother, also named Catherine, would survive for another 2 years, but
would never make it home again.
"When the doctor introduced the cautery," says Ms. Reuter, "he kept
hearing a popping sound. That popping sound was a fire starting around
her face." Runoff from an alcohol-based skin prep had pooled under-
neath Ms. Reuter, and the rising vapors were burning. The former nun
and retired kindergarten teacher suffered disfiguring second- and third-
degree burns on the right side of her face.
"They kept warning me that it looked like a bad sunburn, and they
A DAUGHTER'S STORY
When Fire Reality Hits Home
BEFORE AND AFTER Catherine Reuter spent 8 weeks in a medically
induced coma after being burned, and never made it home again.
Catherine
Reuter,
MHA
