Respiratory complications: The battle ahead for survivors of fire

Dar es Salaam. Many of the tanker accident survivors are suffering from respiratory complications, a specialist of internal medicine at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH), Dr Elisha Osati, said yesterday.

Forty-three people were taken to Muhimbili from Morogoro for specialised treatment following the Saturday accident.

The specialist who doubles as the president of the Medical Association of Tanzania (MAT) told The Citizen yesterday that fire originating from burning petrol can enter inside the human body through breathing.

“Fuel has steam in it; therefore when it burns human beings can inhale the fire ending up with burnt lungs and other parts of the respiratory system,” he said

According to him, patients with burnt respiratory systems are unable to breath and eat properly, therefore, requiring assistance of machines.

According to reports, nine patients admitted at the Mwaisela Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Muhimbili have been placed on life support machines after sustaining serious injuries in in the respiratory systems.

“We have 43 patients, nine of them have been admitted at the ICU and most of those put at the ICU and High Dependency Unit (HDU) suffered over 80 per cent body burns. So, on top of external wounds, they also sustained internal wounds in their respiratory systems,” he said.

Treatment

Dr Osati who supervised the ICU yesterday said while observing patients admitted emphasis should be put on three big things, including shortage of water lost through wounds.

“We also ensure they don’t contract new infections, we try as much as possible to replace lost water and salt,” he said.

Some of the patients have been released from ICU to special care wards. “Those with injuries in their respiratory systems need to be temporarily sustained with special breathing machines to enable them breath,” he said. Regarding time requirement for the patients to recover, Dr Osati said: “It depends on medication, individual patient, body immunity and care.”

He suggested that blood donation was the most important thing to be done by Tanzanians as most burn patients require replacement of most blood and water lost during wound dressing services.

The doctor said many people have donated blood at the facility, yet more is still needed though.

A global challenge

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), burns are a global public health problem, accounting for an estimated 180,000 deaths annually.

The majority of these occur in low- and middle-income countries and almost two thirds occur in the WHO African and South-East Asia regions.