AN expert at Joseph M Still (JMS) Burn Centre in Atlanta, Georgia, where Hanover burn victim Nicola Clarke was flown for surgery in May this year, has underscored the importance of having an equipped burn unit locallyto save lives.

According to the specialist, who opted not to be named, while JMS is always willing to get burn victims flown to the United States for care, numerous challenges can prevent patients from getting there.

“It is extremely complicated to bring people from other countries to the United States. We are always willing to at least be approached and we are always happy to have discussions, but unfortunately the majority of patients that are referred to us are not able to come because there are so many obstacles,” she said.

“Not all patients are going to survive, but there is increased survival when patients have access to expertise,” she added.

Clarke, who was doused with gasoline and set on fire, allegedly by her boyfriend, was airlifted to the USA on May 27. However, she died on August 22 from complications from severe burns, even though doctors said she had “put up a very good fight”.

The JMS expert pointed out that burns are very challenging to care for and in cases where patients experience large percentage burns, their systems become stressed very quickly. Therefore, having access to experts to care for these patients is crucial.

JMS sees approximately 5,000 patients each year and has a 95 per cent survival rate.

One of those survivors is Katie Cook, a former JMS patient who now works at the centre and who is a testament to how lives can be brought back to normal after a near-death experience, having been set on fire by a partner.

She praised the burn centre for helping to keep her alive and said the fact that she lives two hours away from the facility greatly contributed to the process of her recovery.

On May 16, 2014, while she slept, her jealous husband, Jacob Daniel Drotning, entered the bedroom, poured gasoline all over her back and set her ablaze.

“With 75 per cent burns, if I had not made it to the hospital I wouldn’t have survived. I spent about nine months in the hospital and four months in a coma, and I have had close to about 90 surgeries and physical therapy — to include stretching and taking it day by day and living life to the fullest. Now, I want to do what I can to help other people,” Cook told the Jamaica Observer.

Stephen Josephs, project manager of Sanmerna Foundation, recently called on corporate Jamaica to recognise the need for the construction and funding of a burn unit, after seeing too many burn victims die because there is no such facility in the island. The Sanmerna Foundation has been championing the cause to have a burn unit constructed and played a lead role in flying Clarke to JMS with the hope that she would have survived. He added that overseas experts are being engaged to design a unit to be built at Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), and asked the Government to explore the potential economic benefits to be gained from health tourism.

“It is something costly but we have started the design with overseas partners and we are looking to train some doctors and nurses, so by the time the equipment comes here it will not sit and wait,” Josephs said.

“We have been having several meetings, discussing and gathering data. The design is almost completed and we have an expert body surgeon who will be training the nurses and doctors in terms of operation of this unit when it gets here,” he said.