A different kind
of surgical fire
W
hen you
think of
surgical
fires, you probably
think of the patient
catching fire, not the
OR light panel. But
that's just what hap-
pened in OR 2 last
month at the
Physician's Surgery
Center in St.
Petersburg, Fla.
It was around 8:25
a.m., near the end of
the first case of the
day, a carpal tunnel
release, when the
overhead OR lights
flickered and went out. Seconds later, sparks shot out of the OR light
control panel, a 12-inch by 12-inch plastic box that sticks out slightly
from the back wall, around eye level.
A code red had gone out on the overhead page. "I'm thinking, 'Wait,
are we having a fire drill?'" says Barb Hamilton, RN, the nurse manager
at Physician's. "When I went in the room, it was just all smoke."
Staff wheeled the patient to the other side of the room and the cir-
culator used a water mist fire extinguisher to put out the fire, says Ms.
J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 6 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 6 3
• MH ANTIDOTE Marsha Thornhill, MD, the director of anesthesia, and Aimee Fernandez, RN, the director of nursing, practice
drawing up and dissolving dantrolene at the Teaneck (N.J.) Surgical Center.
Marsha
Thornhill,
MD
