Girl mysteriously burned at the hospital - was it hand sanitizer?
PORTLAND, Ore. - Doernbecher Children's Hospital held a late-night news conference on Monday following news reports about a young girl who caught fire when she was there for treatment recently.
The incident in question happened earlier this month and involved an 11-year-old girl, who ran out of her room on fire. According to Doernbecher, staff quickly put out the flames but doctors don't know how the fire started in the first place.
The girl's father was in the room at the time, but was asleep. The girl, Ireland Lane, had been painting in her room before the fire erupted but there's talk that hand sanitizer may have been involved.
"I've been in medicine going back 30 years now and never heard anything like this. And hopefully I never will again," said Dr. Stacy Nicholson, Assistant Chief at Doernbecher Children's Hospital.
The girl is a cancer survivor and was in the hospital for an unrelated head injury. She is now in serious condition at Legacy Emanuel.
Doctors say they are waiting for the fire marshal to finish the investigation.
Nice picture of Ireland Lane in the Oregonian... she's a pretty girl with a sweet smile..! Â Â Sure do hope that she will soon be on the mend from her burn injuries..! Â Â
Obviously there are pieces to this story that are missing. Regardless, this is so sad for this little girl. Cancer, head injury ...and now burns! Poor thing.Â
@Just_one_opinion The link further down to Oregon Live has more details.Â
Very strange and tragic. Â Was the girl possibly using a hot glue gun for her project?
@negativerep From all the details I've pieced together from various stories, she was just painting. When she was done, she used the sanitizer to clean her tray. Right after that was the fire. That's why they are thinking the vapors from the sanitizer combusted with a spark of static electricity. Some say the hospitals don't have it, but apparently she'd been having fun previously with the static electricity from her sheets. I know every time I have been in the hospital, I've always had static electricity issues with my sheets.
Smoking in bed is my guess.
In reality I think it might have been static...medical devices go through a lot of screening for close patient proximity so I doubt it started from anything else.
@deejm2112  Really??? An 11 year old smoking in bed at a hospital? What a putz.
@wondering @deejm2112 Do you have the attention span to get past the first sentence?
There are so many questions to resolve. The hand sanitizer in the hospitals has at least 60% alcohol. This story doesn't say it, but the one listed in trololol's link does - the girl was burned from her belly button all the way up to her chin. That is a very serious amount of area that was burned! If she had hand sanitizer on her hands, how high did the flames go up? And more importantly - what caused the ignition of the fire?Â
Some other things...in the other story it said that she was to be released the day AFTER this fire incident happened. Father was sleeping in the girl's room. Those two things are adding up to a suspicious idea.Â
I hope the fire marshals can figure this one out. I feel really badly for the girl to have to suffer a different medical incident after she survived cancer.Â
@washcomom The oregonlive .com story tells that the little girl used the hand sanitizer to clean her table tray off. If it wasn't dry, and she wiped her hands dry on her gown, then created static electricity, that very well could be the cause and how it started at her stomach.
@myopinion240Â Thank you for sharing that.Â
I don't know IF hand sanitizer was involved but I will say it is EXTREMELY flammable!
They have these cabins in Alaska, along the Iditarod trails, for people in distress or that just need to get warm. They each have a tiny woodstove in them and often there's a bottle of hand sanitizer to use as a quick starter for the fire.Â
Seriously flammable stuff for sure.. Beyond that I can't imagine what ignited the stuff??
It's seriously suspicious!
There are no ground for people on this message board to be blaming the father. Here is a much better story of what happened.
http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2013/02/portland_hospital_fire_investi.html#incart_m-rpt-2
@trololol I agree. If my child were in the hospital, I can assure you that at least one of us would be there all the time, including overnight. Wouldn't matter if she was going home in a day or a month - we'd be there. It's called being a good parent.
@trololol It's the Oregonian's lead cover story, page 1 with a picture of the young girl.
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@UselessOpinion i agree
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@myopinion240Â At the very least, the screen name is honest, right?
???? this know it all rendered speechless and will.await firemarshalls report....
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@Lips I thought the same thing, but maybe because she has spent so much time in the hospital, she identifies with the nurses more, because they are there 24/7 and she knows they help her. Not saying anything bad about mom or dad, just that could be the case. When my grandson was little he wanted me not his mom or dad when he had a boo boo or was sick. I think because I was pretty much raising him.
After seeing the update I retract my previous statement.
I hope this child has seen the last of her bad luck.
"There's talk that hand sanitizer was involved."? Â Talk? Â Who's saying that? Â Is this a person who works in the hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity? Â Is this someone from the Fire Marshall's Office? Â Is the Bum who stands at the off-ramp of the 217 and Scholls Ferry Rd, the one saying this? Â Really KATU? Â C'mon. Â That's nothing but hersey....and from whom??? Â Which makes that statement BS. Â I've been a Nurse for over 10 years and I know that there are many things that can spark a fire in a Hospital...or anywhere for that matter. Â There are a lot of chemicals in hospitals, Oxygen, and other flammable materials; please note that "non-flammable" does not mean it can't ignite. Â Is it possible that it was related to hand sanitizer? Â Sure...just like it's possible for people who smoke while wearing oxygen to ignite a spark. Â Try not to get your hands dirty digging for a story and let's just wait and see what the investigators say. Â Best wishes and a speedy recovery to the child. Â BTW, a head injury and THEN getting set on fire??? Â Has anyone questioned the Father? Â Sleeping seems to be a convenient way of feigning innocence for some.
@Ely oh no heaven forbid the dad was sleeping, he has been there thru day one since the incident happened. His child was burned and he sits there holding her hand as they change the bandages and hearing his daughter in pain. How dare u judge this dad? All I can say to you, is I will pray for you. This father has been thru hell and back with his daughter who had cancer at a young age and now this. So god bless you
@BreenRene @Ely I wasn't judging the Father; I was merely stating one obvious theory.  Of course he sits, holding her hand, and he probably is a great Father who would never think of hurting his child.  When horrible things like this happen though, one needs to look at ALL possibilities, for the sake and safety of the child.  As a Nurse, I have seen Parents come into my ER with children who have bumps, bruises, cuts, gashes, head injuries, etc....and they always come in concerned and holding their child's hands; only for us to find out, after investigating the issue, that they were the one's that caused their child's injury.  They will do this for a few reasons. One, to make everything look like it's okay and to manipulate the child to not say anything, and two...to seek attention for themselves.  There are other reasons, but those are the two that I have seen most in my experience.  So, pray for me if you must, but don't you dare judge me for advocating for a child who's already been through hell and doesn't deserve anymore.  I still say shame on KATU for putting out such hersey.  It was a garbage story.  The story should have been about the child and what happened, with an emphasis on her fighting spirit....not about reckless hersey, jumping the gun and pointing the finger without any evidentiary value to back it up.
Sorry. The hand sanitizer theory won't wash. Washes hands (sorta) but doesn't wash as a theory. There was some kind of accelerant and some ignition source. Paint? Now that's a possibility, I suppose, but I don't buy the static electricity business as a starter. Goodness, the humidity is almost 80%. You'd best pray for me, too, 'cause I say take another look at the father (unless, of course, you personally know him and have more info than what is in the story).
@Mechanic Those hand sanitizers that they use in hospitals are quite flammable for the first few moments. It can definitely catch on fire.Â
She wasn't "mysteriously burned" as I do believe the FLAMES that ENGULFED her BODY had something to do with it.
However, the circumstances surrounding spontaneous combustion IS mysterious.  The burns... not so much.