A 30-year-old lactating mother, who suffered severe burns in a freak accident earlier this year, has got a new lease of life in the form of the skin harvested from a dead person.
The woman underwent a cadaveric skin transplantation at a New Town hospital.
Usually, a skin transplant means taking healthy skin from one part of the body and transplanting it on the affected part. But sometimes, as in this case, there is a dearth of healthy skin on a person to use for the procedure. In such a case, the skin may be taken from a cadaver.
The skin was brought from a skin bank — where donated skins are preserved in refrigerated conditions — in Mumbai.
The woman was rushed to Charnock Hospital on January 10.
"An electric heater led to the injuries when she was feeding her baby. She was brought in with deep second-degree burns in both legs, waist and back. She was charred from under the waist," said Arnab Mondal, a plastic surgeon at the hospital.
"The patient needed skin grafting. The standard practice is to take skin from the legs. But there was no skin left on her legs. So, we decided to go for a cadaveric skin graft," said Rup Narayan Bhattacharya, a senior plastic surgeon who led the team that treated the woman.
"The foreign skin is not permanent. The host body usually rejects the foreign skin after three to four weeks. But the grafting helps us buy time for treatment," said Bhattacharya.
The cadaveric skin graft happened in mid-February. She was discharged on March 6. Most of the cadaver skin was rejected by her body. But her own skin has grown back and some of it has been used for grafting.
"She is leading a near-normal life," said a hospital official.