Plastic surgery on Merapi victims underway
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Doctors will begin performing plastic surgery today on victims of the Mount Merapi eruption. The victims have been receiving treatment for their serious burn injuries.
As of yesterday, the death toll in the Nov. 22 eruption stands at 52 but is, sadly, expected to increase because many of the 29 victims hospitalized with burn injuries are in very critical condition.
Relief aid continued to stream in from various organizations and individuals. The Malaysian government donated food supplies and clothing worth Rp 40 million (US$18,000).
Officials at the Merapi monitoring agency recorded 2 tremors, an indication of low level volcanic activity. They noted that the 2,962 meter high volcano gushed burning lava 49 times.
Surgery
Doctors at the Sardjito hospital said they will start performing plastic surgery on seven patients today, one day behind schedule due to medical reasons.
Plastic surgery will also be performed on one victim at the Bethesda hospital, three at Panti Rapih hospital and one at the Muhammadiyah hospital.
Coordinator of medical treatment for the Merapi victims, Doctor Bayu Nugroho said that the victims had between 70 to 90 percent of their skin burnt.
Surgeons will graft skin taken from unaffected parts of the burn victims' body. The grafted skin will be covered with the hide of young goats until the new skin grows, a process that will take about two weeks, he said.
The hides of more than a dozen goats, aged about three months, will be used in the rare surgery. Doctors say goats are chosen because the animals are highly resistant to infection.
Five doctors from Japan and Australia have been brought in to assist with the surgery.
"The surgery is more life-saving in nature than actual skin grafting," doctor Hendro Wartatmo of Sardjito Hospital told The Jakarta Post.
He said the patients also suffered internal burn injuries they received from inhaling the hot gases from the volcano.
Yesterday Search and Rescue workers canceled plans to enter the worst-hit hamlet of Turgo as well as others near the Boyong River for fear that the pounding rain would wash the massive lava deposit down from the slopes of the mountain.
On Wednesday, the day the volcano was declared calm, Search and Rescue workers reached the two areas and found human remains in the Boyong River and Rp 1 million (US$483,000) in cash in Turgo.
In Boyolali, people in the Selo subdistrict have complained they cannot use the water from their wells because it is badly polluted by volcanic ash.
Local health officials have warned residents against drinking the contaminated water and, instead, the local government is supplying clean water to area. (mun/har/wah/pan)