Applying Eggs & Paps To Burn Injuries, Right Or Wrong? Expert, Dr Folake Abikoye Answers
There is a common practice in this country to apply eggs and pap to burn injuries. There was a day cooked beans from the stove poured on my hand and the next thing people around did was to get me pap and egg. It was spread on the injured part.
However, the Head of Department, Burns and Plastic Reconstructive Surgery, National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos, Dr Folake Abikoye, is warning Nigerians against the habit of applying eggs, toothpaste and pap to burn injuries before taking the patient to the hospital.
A burn is a type of injury to skin, or other tissues, caused by heat, cold, electricity, chemicals, friction, or radiation.
In an interview with PUNCH correspondent, the expert said people should rather cool the burn injury with clean water, rather than contaminating the injury. She said,
“If there is a burn injury at home or wherever it has happened, the first thing is to remove the person or people from the burn injury or fire immediately. In some instances, if the fire continues to burn when one runs off, then the people will need to ‘stop drop and roll’ to quench the fire.
“For the burn injury, what people need is ‘ordinary water to cool the burn wounds, instead of contaminating the wounds with egg, pap, palm oil, toothpaste before presenting in the hospital. Once they cool the burn wounds, they can get a clean cloth to cover the wounds and advise the patient to present in the hospital for care.”
She advised owners of gas stations to obey the safety guidelines of the Department of Petroleum Resources to forestall the occurrences of gas explosions. Dr Abikoye said:
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“In Nigeria, there are guidelines for establishing a natural gas facility. The DPR has stipulated some instructions about it, but I’m not sure if the instructions are being followed to the letter.
A gas plant should have a lot of industrial fire extinguishers to be able to curb fire when there is an outbreak. For everybody, it is very important that they have an appropriate fire extinguisher at home.
The date expiry of the fire extinguisher should be checked as well to know when they should be replaced. There is also a need for fire drills to know how to operate the fire extinguishers which are at their reach.
To forestall incessant gas explosions, gas and filling station should be located outside residential areas preferably. DPR should have regular inspection teams to ensure that these stations comply with safety measures.
They should also have fire safety certificates from the federal or state fire service. Also, for those using gas cylinders for cooking, they should endeavour to place them outside the kitchen and piped inside for safety purpose.”
The specialist added that the preventions of burn injuries were always better than treating the wounds.