Mexican day-care fire victim to undergo surgery
SACRAMENTO — A 3-year-old boy who was badly burned in a fire that killed 42 infants and toddlers at a Mexican day care was scheduled to undergo several hours of skin graft surgery, a Sacramento pediatric hospital official said Sunday.
The boy was burned over about half his body. Doctors hoped to treat his arms and legs during the procedure, which could last up to four hours and was to begin Sunday, said Dr. David Greenhalgh, chief of burns at Shriners Hospitals for Children Northern California. It would likely be the first of many operations for the boy.
Mexican authorities on Saturday flew the boy and a 3-year-old girl who was burned over 80 percent of her body to Sacramento from Hermosillo, where Friday’s fire occurred.
Both were in critical condition and under constant monitoring because of the high risk of infection, Greenhalgh said.
“If you can imagine, you lose the main barrier to infection by losing your skin,” Greenhalgh said. “Then we’re constantly fighting sepsis infections, so you have to constantly monitor that. Children almost always go through some period of severe infections, so it’s kind of a tough ride for a long period.”
Doctors said both children had some family members with them in Sacramento.
The children were awake and able to communicate although they couldn’t talk because they have breathing tubes, Greenhalgh said.
“We give them tons of medicines that help the pain and help them forget,” he said. “We do want them to be able to respond to questions and open eyes.”
Shriners Hospital was waiting to hear whether Mexican officials planned to send any more of the dozens of children injured in the fire at ABC day care to the hospital. Greenhalgh said the intensive care unit could probably take two to four more children.
A relative who arrived at the Sacramento hospital on Saturday said the girl’s father traveled with her.
“They called me from Mexico,” said Felix Barreras, 42, who lives in the eastern San Francisco Bay area city of Fairfield. “I see the news yesterday, but I never imagined it would be my family.”
Barreras said the girl’s mother is his niece and had been working at the day care when the fire broke out. She was taken to a hospital in Obregon, also in the state of Sonora.
“She went through the flames to pick out her daughter. She got burned on the face, the head. She swallowed a lot of smoke,” he said.
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