Leatherized Burns

Until a few years ago a person who was burned over a third or more of his body had little chance of living. If he survived the shock, he would lose so much water through his skinless flesh that his blood would be unable to get rid of waste matter. If toxemia did not kill him, he would probably die of external infection contracted through his raw flesh.

In 1925 Dr. Edward Clement Davidson of Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit discovered that he could coagulate burned surfaces by soaking them with tannic acid. The tanned coating kept body moisture from escaping, germs from entering.

Last week Dr. Adalbert G. Bettman of the University of Oregon reported a further effective treatment of severe burns and scalds. He gives the victim a narcotic to control pain, removes loosened skin from the injured areas, applies a freshly made 5% solution of tannic acid with cotton swabs. Then he immediately sponges the entire area with a 10% solution of silver nitrate. Almost instantly the silver nitrate forms a thin leathery surface over the wounds, much as a hot oven sears the outside of a beefsteak and thereby confines its juice.

First desperate case to get the Bettman treatment was a Portland, Ore. motor car dealer named Roy Burnett. Ten days after being extensively burned about the head in an accident, Mr. Burnett shaved, in 42 days left the hospital. Dr. Bettman keeps in his office pieces of the leather he peeled from Mr. Burnett's burns.

Dr. Bettman, only specialist in plastic surgery in the Pacific Northwest, got the idea of combining tannic acid and silver nitrate for burns from his procedure for removing tattoo marks. To remove tattoos he injects tannic acid and silver nitrate solutions with a tattooing machine over the original marks. At once a black coagulum forms. The leathery surface, with the design dimly visible, peels off in a few days.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.