Plastics ... eek!

Plastics! Oh how that scares me. Taking scarred skin and rearranging and/or replacing it with new skin. Just the thought of it and the extensive dressings makes me a little nervous. Luckily this outreach we have a team of amazing nurses that have volunteered to do all the plastic dressings. Whew!

Danielle, June, Amy and Karin ... our amazing dressing team!

Ok, so yeah that was a little vague. Let me tell you a little about plastics. The majority of our plastic patients are having contracture releases secondary to burns. A contracture is when the normally stretchy (elastic) tissues are replaced by nonstretchy (inelastic) fiber-like tissue. This makes it hard to stretch the area and prevents normal movement.They acquire contractures after they are burned and the wound is not properly care for.  The body is an amazing healer, but when you place two fresh wounds up against each other. Say for example your chin and your neck/upper chest. The two will stick together making one scab. Eventually your chin will be attached to your neck. I know this sounds like an extreme case. But this is exactly what happened to Tia (name changed). When she was just a few days old, there was an accident. A oil lamp was accidentally knocked over, splashing hot oil all over her lower face, chest and one of her hands. This would have been a big emergency back in the states, we would have immediately sent her to a specialized burn unit. But there are no specialized places here. She was lucky to even been taken to a hospital. Age is kind of questionable here, I'd say she is late twenites/early thirties (at the most). She has lived with her chin attached to her neck/upper chest all of her life.
Then she came to Mercy Ships. I remember the first day she came on the ward. When you see it for the first time, there is a little shock factor. I mean I see things you would never, ever see in the Western world. But then you look into their eyes and you see the suffering and sadness. No matter what society has said about them all of their life, you have to love them. Tia had her surgery a couple of weeks ago and in the past week I have seen her bloom. Her mouth is closed for the first time in decades, the immediate transformation is amazing. She has photos of her family that she loves to show off and her face lights up everytime. The other day I was walking down the hall and I found her and two of the other female patients dancing in the stairwell. And she laughed and laughed when I caught them. So what do I do? Of course I join, I'm not going to miss a dance party!
Tia is continuing to heal. She has had some issues with infection. So please pray for her continued healing both physically and emotionally.


Tia continuously has a bulky neck dressing (I have no idea what it looks like beneath). Whenever it comes off it will be like a wonderful suprise ... Surprise a neck! Tia is here with one of our great dayworkers, a fellow charge nurse Bethany and some really adorable little boys :)