Australian nurse Val Smith-Orr finished the English National Board postgraduate course in burns and plastic surgery at the McIndoe Burns Unit of the Queen Victoria Hospital in London.
Her first visit to the Philippines was in February 1991. With a team of highly qualified medics, she offered free surgery for indigents born with cleft lip and palate.
Smith-Orr continued to visit the country twice a year until 2003, screening patients and offering long term-treatments to those who already had surgery.
Everything changed in February 2006 when she returned and found herself staying in Zambales for six months to collect data for her master’s research at the University of Queensland on feeding infants with cleft lip and palate in a developing country.
It was during this time that she treated Monalisa, the 10th child of a family with little means. She was severely malnourished with bilateral cleft of the lip and palate. At three months old she weighed just 2.4 kilos.
Smith-Orr vowed to save her life and did more than that. She became the licensed foster parent to Monalisa, who’s now a healthy and beautiful 9-year-old.
‘Impossible to leave’
“The academe took a backseat,” she said. “Real life took over. I could not leave my ‘anak.’ Many other patients came to me after Monalisa. It was impossible to leave.”
Smith-Orr became the first member from the Philippines of the Swinfen Charitable Trust (Telemedics), giving her access to more than 260 medical consultants and specialists from Europe, Australia and the United States.
She is also the supervisor of the Zambales Speech Center (where children who have undergone cleft surgery can get free speech therapy) and a founding board member of Triple B (burns, bingot or cleft lip, bulate or worms) Care Projects.
She said her dream is to build a burn unit in Zambales to provide patients with international standards of care from the onset of the injury through rehabilitation.
At her dream facility, there would be no billing section. Individuals can make a donation for treatment or, as she already did in her clinic in Castillejos, find sponsors for the poor.
I learned from Smith-Orr that burns from hot liquids, known as scalds, are still the most common form of burns in the house, affecting mostly children under 5 years old.
It is an uncomfortable thought that the kitchen, the hub that nourishes every family, could become a danger zone.
Kitchen safety tips
Here are kitchen safety tips from nurse Val Smith-Orr:
1. Do not put any hot liquid or anything hot such as pots and pans within a child’s reach.
2. Thermos lids must be tightly screwed on.
3. Water dispensers should be kept away from children. A child will go for the primary color—red (hot water) lever—and an accident may cause serious burns in the back of the arms and hands.
4. Turn off the LPG tank after each use of the gas stove. Do not repeatedly click the auto igniter while bending down to see if the flame had been lit, with your face close to the burner; LPG vapors (much like gasoline, kerosene or denatured alcohol) are invisible. By doing so you are at risk of getting serious flash burns on your face due to the vapors.
5. Have the pilot light and the hoses of your stove checked regularly. The hose must be changed every year.
6. If you are frying and the wok catches fire, immediately turn off the source—LPG or circuit breaker or main switch.
Do not attempt to pick up the wok and carry it out. Air fans the flames and the person carrying the wok will get severe burns in the face, hands and chest.
Do not throw water on boiling oil either. Instead get a tea towel, wet it and squeeze out the excess water, make sure it is not dripping. Throw this damp towel over the wok.
7. The safest way to prepare instant noodles is to transfer the contents to a bowl and then pour the hot water. Keep it away until it has cooled. Children tend to eat their cup of noodles on the floor, putting them at risk for thigh, hand and genital burns.
8. Open microwaveable popcorn bags away from you as this can cause steam burns on the face.
9. Protect yourself at all times. Use oven mitts.
10. Do not hold any hot liquid while holding a child; the two don’t mix.
11. In the kitchen, children under 7 years old should be supervised; children over 7 should be taught safety.
12. Never ever use kerosene, gasoline, diesel, lighter fuel or denatured alcohol to enhance your uling or wood-fire barbecue. Set it properly from the beginning, using small, tight balls of newspaper on the base, then small sticks, then the larger wood or coal on top. Light small sticks and push them under the newspaper at four-inch intervals. Take time to set the barbecue properly to enjoy a safe, accident-free family event.
First aid for burns
1. Every home must have a first-aid kit with two clean lint-free tea towels, one roll plastic cling wrap and a list of instructions.
2. Do not panic.
3. Immediately after the accident, remove any clothing unless stuck or melted to the skin.
4. Put the affected area under running cold water. If there is no running water, fill a pail and submerge the affected area. Change the water every 5 minutes as it gets hot.
Keep the burn under running water for no less than 20 minutes—a must! This will cool the burn, provide pain relief, lessen the depth of the injury and subsequent scar reduction.
This is an internationally accepted and recognized method of first aid for scalds and burns. Do not apply lotions.
5. Do not use ice; it is very dangerous especially on children. The extremes in temperature can affect the heart.
6. Wrap the burn loosely with cling wrap. The wrap acts as a second skin, preventing bacteria while providing cover where skin is lost.
7. Keep the burn cool and the patient warm. The skin controls our temperature; when damaged it cannot do that properly.
8. Wrap a lint-free towel around the affected area and take the patient to the nearest ER or burn specialist.
To help nurse Val Smith Orr in her advocacy, call 0919-3174208; or e-mail wandering.angel6@gmail.com.