Clinton wrote this …
An explosion late Tuesday morning at the Slim Jim factory in Garner, N.C., near Raleigh, collapsed the roof and started a fire. At least 20 people were injured and taken to hospitals. Because UNC has the region’s burn center, the most severe, four of them, came our way. Another three were transferred here from UNC’s Rex Healthcare.
Family members can call 919-966-5006 for more information.
Just an hour earlier, these folks were pulling their shifts on the factory floor, looking forward to the lunch hour. Then, literally, boom.
Trauma bays in the emergency department filled with doctors, nurses, x-ray techs, swarming in and out, stabilizing patients, finding beds, checking forms.
In the burn center nurses cared for patients and the dozens of family and friends who arrived to show support and swelled from the small waiting room into the corridors. Recreational therapists helped explain the injuries and care to children. Social workers become instant advocates for people they’d never met.
Burns create waves of traumatic emotions. The only minor burn, Bruce Cairns, the burn unit director says, is on someone else. The injuries can be disfiguring, disturbing. But they also smolder in the body, and can be more serious as the days progress, becoming more susceptible to infections.
Even burns that cover a relatively small area can require surgery to clean the wound and apply a skin graft. A burn, after all, is an injury that exposes the body normally covered by layers of skin and tissue. Patients can stay months, spending time in a deep medical sleep while their bodies heal, then awake to the intense and painful rehab.
Four of the patients we received last night have burns over 40-50%; some of the minor burns are to the face. And, there are other injuries resulting from a collapsing building. Cairns and colleagues will spend hours in the OR today, and time with families explaining the circumstances.
Yesterday, Dr. Charles Cairns, Bruce’s brother and chair of emergency medicine at UNC, where the patients went first, talked with reporters over the phone (CNN, AP, WRAL) about the uncertain nature of burns.
Bruce Cairns also spoke with media, including this Skype interview with local NBC-17 and Bloomberg.
But today and tomorrow will reveal more about the burn injuries.
2 Comments
June 16, 2009 at 3:57 pm
[...] Sybert earlier today and asked about the care of survivors from burns like those suffered by the survivors of the ConAgra explosion, four of whom remain in critical condition. She also told us what it’s like to be a resident [...]
August 20, 2009 at 7:51 pm
I am very sorry about the explosion and
the numerous injuries. My prayers will
be with the victims and their families.
I found out about the explosion while
trying to locate your wonderful
slim jim sausage sticks to send to my
grandson at university of Idaho. They
are his favorite treat and this grandmother wanted him to have
a good supply while away at college.
Blessings and prayers go up for all
the employee’s.