Four of the five patients flown to the Arizona Burn Center to treat their injuries from the New Year’s fireworks explosion are now awake and coming to terms with their injuries.
Dr. Kevin Foster, director of the Arizona Burn Center, said all five patients are doing “really, really well” while speaking to reporters via video chat on Friday.
Foster said the four patients who are no longer sedated have had their wounds “excised and grafted and largely healed.” They are now taking part in acute rehabilitation.
One patient was woken up about two weeks ago, while the other three were taken out of their medically induced comas more recently.
“Most of them have just come off the ventilator and are just starting to mobilize out of bed and look at themselves in the mirror,” said Foster.
He said burn patients are often startled and even disturbed when first seeing themselves. However, Foster said the four patients “seem to be handling that very well.”
The four patients were also surprised to learn they were in Arizona.
“We really haven't gotten much beyond that. I think a lot of this is just explaining the injuries to them and what happened to them, because there are some gaps in their memories about that,” said Foster. “But I think overall, it's going really well. It's just a bit of a surprise.”
He said the patients have “varying degrees of memory of the incident,” but added that often patients' “memories get a little better over time.”
The patients are also dealing with the pain from their injuries, which will probably last for months or even years. “There's pain associated with the wounds, and there's a lot of pain that's associated with rehabilitation and occupational therapy and physical therapy,” said Foster.
The one patient who remains on a ventilator and in a medically induced coma has a severe lung injury, but Foster said the injury is “getting better … so we’re really happy.”
A New Year’s fireworks explosion at a home in Aliamanu killed six people and injured about 20 others. The tragedy occurred when a lit bundle of about 50 aerial fireworks fell over, blasting into crates that contained unlit fireworks and causing them to also go off. Three days after the explosion, the military helped transfer six patients from Queen’s Medical Center and Straub Benioff Medical Center to the Arizona Burn Center for further treatment. On Jan. 28, one of the six patients flown to Arizona, Kevin Vallesteros, died.
“His injuries were severe and really not compatible with life, and we did our very best for him, but unfortunately, he succumbed to injuries that were not really survivable,” said Foster.
His girlfriend and the mother of his infant son, Melissa Cabrera, is one of the other burn patients flown to Arizona for treatment, according to a GoFundMe page.
The patients were not identified by Foster for privacy reasons, but he previously described them as being in their 20s and 30s and having “very extensive burns” that range from covering 45% to 80% of their bodies.
“Over the next several weeks, we'll probably be discharging just about everybody,” said Foster.
The five patients, along with their family, will work with the Arizona Burn Center staff to decide whether to return to Hawaii or stay in Arizona for the next stage of inpatient rehabilitation.
“Almost all of them will require pretty extensive reconstructive surgeries, prolonged rehabilitation with occupational therapy and physical therapy, and we're anticipating that there'll probably be some psychological and psychiatric problems,” said Foster about the long-term recovery. “Burn injuries of this magnitude are a lifelong injury, and it affects not only the patient but also family members and friends and an entire community.”
Michelle Broder Van Dyke covers the Hawaiian Islands for Spectrum News Hawaii. Email her at michelle.brodervandyke@charter.com.
