Following the Monday eruption, 24 patients are currently in critical condition
Doctors in New Zealand are currently awaiting nearly 1,300 square feet of skin from the United States in order to treat the dozens of victims who suffered severe burns when a volcano erupted on White Island Monday afternoon.
Dr. Peter Watson, chief medical officer of Counties Manukau Health, said at a press conference Wednesday that there are 29 patients being treated in intensive care and burn units at four different hospitals throughout New Zealand. Twenty-four of the burn patients remain in critical condition.
“We currently have supplies but are urgently sourcing additional supplies to meet the demand for dressing and temporary skin grafts,” Watson said. “We anticipate we will require an additional 1.2 million square centimeters [1,292 square feet] of skin for the ongoing needs of the patients. These supplies are coming from the United States and the order has been placed.”
Watson said the nature of the victims’ injuries had been made “complicated” by the gases and chemicals in the eruption, thus making “more rapid” surgical treatment necessary, as opposed to if they’d suffered thermal-only burns....MORE
The average adult has about eight pounds (3.6 kilograms), or about 22 square feet (2 square meters) of skin. It may help to put that in perspective -- a standard doorway is 21 square feet, and the average adult's skin would fill all of that space
