NEGLECTED BURNS

Mrs PD never imagined that her habit of alcoholism can put her into so much trouble. As usual, PD had her usual evening binge and was having a good time. She thought that she would do better with one more go of the local drink (Hadiya) when she lost balance and fell backwards on the open fireplace where she was simultaneously cooking food.

The incident was sometime in the first week of June. She was brought to us where one of our medical officers saw her. She was not willing for admission and wanted only some local balm and injections. She went off home with the medicines - not heeding for admission.

She turned up after 3 weeks - saying that the wounds have worsened. And this is what we saw. I don't think I need to describe this grotesque picture of her legs. A part of the major burns is on her buttocks which I did not include in the picture for obvious reasons. I'm not sure if she had put any other local application.

We knew that we had to act fast - escharotomy and skin grafting was decided. We went ahead and wait to see how the grafts have taken. The wounds needed about 3 sittings for total debridement before she could be taken for grafting. The wound over the buttocks were a bit too deep as we could see the schiatic nerve (the main nerve to the leg).

Kindly pray for this lady. We need to work on this lady's life - Alchoholism among village women is a serious issue in this part of the country. Availability of home brewed liquor called 'Hadiya' makes the issue more worse. Pray that we would be able to look at options of having qualified people who would be able to counsel such patients.