Víctor Manuel Sanabria Martínez Hospital in Puntarenas has treated 52 children in the “Children with Burns Unit” of the Central Pacific region in just over a year.
The number of timely treatments represents an important leap in the type of care for this emergency in the hospital, with highly successful results in healing, which begins with the management of pain with strong anesthetics.
This unit began operating in October 2016 thanks to a collaboration and training agreement with the National Children’s Hospital, which allowed the attention of severe cases for the first time in the region, demonstrating the will and technical excellence of the health teams.
In Puntarenas, the attention to children with burns follows the same multidisciplinary care protocols used in Children’s Hospital. Based on this integral approach, emergency teams, nurses, psychotherapists, pediatric surgeons, social workers, anesthesiologists, physiatrists, nutritionists and psychologists can be incorporated into the treatment.
In addition, patients are followed up after their discharge, with visits to the home and appointments in an outpatient clinic, thus avoiding the transfer of patients and relatives to San José.
Dr. Orlando Urroz, leader of the unit, assures that the process accounts for very satisfactory successes such as care with zero cases of infections, pain management since the admission in the E.R. and cures every four days, to avoid the suffering related to the manipulation of wounds.
The main causes of burns in the area are: hot water, boiling oil, direct fire, explosion of gunpowder by school or recreational experiments, or electric burns.
The doctor recalled some measures of interest: to bathe children, it’s important to start with cold water and add hot water until the desire temperature is reached, and avoid doing it the other way around, because having large amounts of hot water can cause accidents or burns, since a baby’s skin is very sensitive.
In addition, Urroz reminded the parents and guardians that campfires must be kept under control and permanent vigilance must be exercised over the children to avoid accidents. In addition, he emphasized the responsibility to put out the fire when it is no longer needed.
These are some recommendations from the campers:
Never leave a campfire unattended; an adult must supervise the fire at all times.
Have a bucket of water and a shovel nearby to control the fire if necessary.
Never put anything other than wood in the campfire.
Do not remove sticks from the campfire.
Do not sit in the space of caution or on the stones around the campfire.
Keep in mind that the stones of the campfire will heat up quickly and be hot for a long time.
When it is time to put out the fire, pour plenty of water over the fire, stir with a shovel, and then pour more water over the space. Make sure it is cold before leaving the camp.