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were right," says Ms. Reuter. "But nothing prepares you for the days
ahead, because unlike anything else, burns get worse first. Over the
days, her face swelled and oozed and dissipated. She didn't even look
like herself."
The next 2 years were a nightmare, starting with an 8-week-long
induced coma. "As a direct result of the burn, her kidneys failed, so she
was in dialysis 3 times a week. The trach in her neck could never come
out because her airway was damaged. And she had so many infections –
MRSA, VRE, C. diff — that, in turn, really hindered her care," says Ms.
Reuter. "You have a diabetic who's a cardiac patient who's now a burn
patient and who now has all these infections."
But the patient never lost her caring nature and sense of purpose.
"When she was told what had happened, the first thing she asked was
whether everyone in the OR was OK," her daughter recalls. "She always
put everybody else before herself.
"I wanted to do something for her. I said, name it, I'll make it happen,
what can I do to make the quality of your life better? She said there
were 2 things. One, she wanted to go outside. The hospital helped me
make that happen. The second was, she said: 'I'm going to die, I know
this, but I want others to learn from this.'"
Her daughter took the request to heart, altering the course of her life to
make sure her mother's request was answered. An administrative assis-
tant for a commercial lender at the time, Ms. Reuter started a website
(
surgicalfire.org
) to tell her story and promote safety and awareness. "We
have so much technology," she says, "but technology isn't going to solve
this problem. This is a problem of human error, a problem of common
sense, of what's flammable and what's not."
— Jim Burger
O R F I R E S
