Svyatoslav, a 5-year-old from Vinnytsia, could hardly move his hand due to a severe allergic reaction to the medication he was given in the hospital.
To help the child, burn surgeons at St Nicholas Hospital of the First Medical Association of Lviv performed an operation and used revolutionary technology.
Immediately after his birth, 5 years ago, Sviatoslav was injected with a medicine, as his mother explained, “to prevent a lack of blood sugar”. The reaction to the drug turned out to be unpredictably dangerous for the child and caused massive swelling of the left arm, which led to necrosis, i.e. the death of skin layers. In particular, the subcutaneous fatty tissue of the limb.
The boy spent 10 days in intensive care. They managed to save Svyatoslav’s arm. However, deep massive scars formed on the skin, and contractures, i.e. restriction of joint movement, appeared on the fingers, elbow and hand. Also, his left arm began to grow slower and lag behind his right. To help Svyatoslav, he underwent a series of skin grafting and scar removal surgeries in Vinnytsia, Kyiv and abroad.
This year, the boy’s parents turned to the burn surgeons and physical therapists at St Nicholas Hospital for help. Here, the specialists decided to correct the defect surgically. The operation was performed in two stages.
First, the scars were removed from the hand and forearm. And then they closed the wound with BTM, a revolutionary coating from an Australian manufacturer. It is an artificial synthetic material that allows for the closure of deep wounds until the patient’s own skin can be transplanted.
After closing Sviatoslav’s postoperative wound with BTM, the physical therapist fixed the limb, and the burn surgeons connected a wac system, a device to drain the wound and speed up healing. Four weeks later, the boy underwent another operation to transplant his own skin.
In the future, the child will undergo a series of interventions on his fingers. Svyatoslav is a lively and active boy. His parents’ biggest dream is to return their son to a full childhood, and now they are on the way to fulfilling it.
Reference.
BTM coverage is expensive. In April this year, the Taiwanese government provided it to the children’s hospital patients. As part of the international Burn Care Alliance project, created by the Christian Medical Association of Ukraine, a total of $2 million was allocated to help Ukrainians with burns.