The background of many of our 'plastics' patients

I thought I would just give a bit of information about how many of our patients requiring plastics and burn surgery come about. The main way of cooking in Liberia is either open fire or using oil stoves and lamps. As a result many of our patients have had quite horrific burns from fire or from spilt oil. Children are particularly at risk of having such burns. Our team have recently been involved in 'releasing' burn contractures, where skin as become tight and forced a limb into an abnormal position. For example, one child I have been looking after had burnt his legs and one foot in particular had been pulled inwards so it was difficult to walk. He has been able to have surgery from a skin graft to ensure the foot is able to go into the correct position. Without it, he may well have been considered 'disabled' and unable to walk and support a family in the future.

I have also heard some quite distressing stories of other burns. It is not uncommon to have more than one wife here, and on occasions there can be a great deal of jealousy between them. One very sad story is of a lady who had hot water/oil from a cooking stove poured over her by the 'other wife' because of her jealousy. Consequently she has huge burns covering her arms, and back and her skin is severely disfigured. Her surgery was to try and return function to her arms using skin grafts from healthy tissue. She is doing quite well now and her face lights up in a way before her surgery she would never have dreamed of. It has been tough to look after her knowing her story but her guts and her now smiling face is a delight!