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Never Again, Hospital Vows

Posted on: Saturday, 26 January 2008, 09:00 CST

COON RAPIDS -- It took only seconds for a bassinet fire to ignite at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids this week and burn a newborn's head and shoulders. It will take at least three months to figure out what went wrong.

Allina Hospitals & Clinics has hired a top health care safety consultant to investigate what caused this "spontaneous eruption of flames," said Dr. Penny Wheeler, Allina's chief clinical officer. Hospital officials have found no similar accidents in the United States.

"We are going to do everything in our power to make sure that this doesn't happen anywhere, anyplace, ever again," Wheeler said Friday.

The investigation will involve local and state fire officials, medical-device manufacturers, federal regulators and other experts.

The baby, Maverick, suffered burns on his scalp, shoulders and hands Tuesday morning, 12 hours after he was born. Maverick was three weeks premature and receiving supplemental oxygen through a box-shaped, plastic hood over his head. The fire sparked inside the hood.

Wheeler commended two nurses who were nearby for acting quickly to put out the fire -- which lasted "a few" seconds -- and protecting Maverick from further harm. The nurses have been deeply affected by the accident and have not yet returned to work, she said.

Wheeler, an obstetrician, offered sympathy to the parents: "I can't even imagine the pain of going from one of the most joyous experiences in life to a tragedy all within the span of 12 hours."

The

parents live near Elk River and also have a 4-year-old daughter. Their attorney, Chris Messerly, said the parents can now touch Maverick's leg, but only while wearing surgical gloves to prevent wound infections. The family wants to remain anonymous for now.

After the fire, Maverick was taken to the burn unit at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. He remains there in critical condition with burns to about 18 percent of his body.

Messerly went Friday to see the burned bassinet, now removed from the nursery.

"It surprised me how much damage there was," he said. "The hood, so to speak, over Maverick's head was significantly burned around the edges. I mean this is plastic, and it was melted and black. There were burn marks on the bedding he was laying on."

Mercy is an Allina-affiliated hospital. If other newborns there need similar oxygen therapy, they will be transferred to other hospitals as a precaution, Wheeler said.

Allina has retained Mark Bruley of Pennsylvania-based ECRI Institute, a national expert on hospital-related fires, to participate in the investigation.

Prior ECRI research shows many hospital fires involve heat-producing surgical tools. Enriched oxygen often is a culprit as well, because it causes fires to burn hotter and to spread more rapidly.

A November study in Pennsylvania found 28 surgery-related fires per year in that state alone, suggesting hundreds take place in the U.S. each year.

While this fire took place inside the oxygen hood, the larger question is what device or incident caused it to erupt, Wheeler said. The investigation will consider all the equipment around Maverick, such as the warmer in the bassinet, the vital-sign monitors and the sensors on the boy's body.

"We're looking at every piece -- every piece -- of equipment that was around that baby at the time," Wheeler said.

Source: Saint Paul Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.)

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