An 11 year old girl who was hospitalized with a head injury is now recovering from third-degree burns after her shirt caught fire in a Portland, Ore., hospital, according to a Feb. 19 ABC News report.
Ireland Lane, an 11-year-old cancer survivor had reportedly been painting in her room at Doernbecher Children’s hospital when her shirt mysteriously caught fire, ABC affiliate KATU reported. “I've been in medicine going back 30 years now and never heard anything like this. And hopefully I never will again,”Dr. Stacy Nicholson, physician-in-chief at Doernbecher Children's Hospital, told KATU.
“Our safety experts are working closely with the Oregon State Fire Marshal's office on its investigation,” Nicholson added in a statement to ABCNews.com. “We anxiously await the their findings and will certainly make adjustments if the cause was preventable.”
The hospital staff extinguished the fire, but the cause remains unknown. According to the Oregonian, Lane said she had used hand sanitizer clean a table that rolled over her bed, where she had painted a wooden gift box. Officials are investigating whether the alcohol-based sanitizer and static electricity could have sparked the fire, a spokesman for the Oregon State Fire Marshal told ABCNews.com.
Ireland was scheduled to be released from the hospital on the day of the fire, Feb. 2, after been hospitalized for a head injury. She is now reportedly undergoing treatment for multiple third-degree burns at Oregon Burn Center and is listed in serious condition with a second skin graft scheduled for Feb. 22.
“She's quite a tough one,” her father Stephen Lane said. “She's been through more than any child I've ever heard of, and to still walk around with a smile on her face and enjoy the things of the day that are going on, and be a kid is to me pretty amazing.” He added that his daughter “still has bad dreams,” but doesn’t remember the fire.
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