DHAKA: The first twenty four hours is ‘golden hour’ for a burn victim patient. If any burn victim gets proper treatment during this time then the survival chance is eighty percent along with immunity from other serious problems.
But the victims are not getting proper treatment during the vital hours due to shortage of burn specialist causing the increase of death toll every year.
DR. Shamanta Lal Sen, the honorary adviser to Burn and Plastic Surgery Department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), during talk with banglanews team said, “In the country, we need at least 1500 burn treating doctors but there are only 52. This inadequate number of doctors is hampering the proper treatment of burn victims.”
He told that in 2014 about 6,53,116 people received burn injuries in different ways. Of them, 6352 victims died. In first month of current year, 138 burn victims got admitted only at DMCH. Of them, nine succumbed to their injuries.
Dr. Shamanta Lal Sen further informed that not only there is dearth of specialists doctors but also there is non availability of necessary equipments for treating the burn patients across the country and thereby in district and upazila level hospitals.
The burn patients of outside Dhaka need lot of time for shifting to the capital that makes difficult to save their lives. For this reason the burn treatment should be decentralized, he opined.
DR Tanvir Ahmed of Burn Unit said to banglanews, “The first 24-hour is very much important for a burn patient. About eighty percent patients can be saved through proper treatment during this time.”
He added: “Whenever a man receives burn injuries then instantly he will have to push saline opening all of his Intravenous Lines. But in most cases these are not done.”
If any burn patient is given this primary treatment then the number of deaths will come down as well as this management will save the brain, kidney and liver from being damaged. In this case, the role of a burn specialist is very much important.
The burn specialists informed that the use of petrol bombs in the ongoing political violence has caused the increase the rate of deaths of burn victims.
Dr. Shamanta Lal Sen emphasized the need to establish a complete Burn Institute to make burn specialist doctors. At present, the number of output of burn specialist is only three annually. But if there is a Burn Institute then the number of output will rise to 18 to 20 annually.
The people concerned said that the poor people become burn victims mostly. So the government should take the responsibility of their treatment. In a few private hospitals there is some arrangement of treatment of burn victims but that is very much costly. The poor patient cannot afford that treatment.
Though burn units have been opened in some government hospitals but there is dearth of specialist doctors, a competent source informed banglanews.
The investigation reporting team included Abaduzzaman Shimul, Nurul Amin, Adnan Rahman and Abu Khalid.
BDST: 1650 HRS, FEB 22, 2015
