Empress and Ian were especially fortunate because Shriners actually sent a doctor down to Belize to make sure that the kids – who are in critical condition – would be stable to travel by air to Texas.  Dr. William Sherman who is a burn surgeon told us what the kids would have to go through on the road to recovery:…

Alex Courtenay
"Can you give us some information about the procedures that you came down to do on the two burnt victims?"

Dr. William Sherman - Burn Surgeon, Shrines Hospital
"Sure so the two burn victims that I saw in the hospital today were fairly badly injured and they are going by air back to the United States so I assessed them and determine they were stable enough for transport however because of the extensiveness of the burns I wanted to ensure that they weren't going to be any problems in flight. So I performed some minor surgical procedures at bed side today to help prepare them for the flight."

Alex Courtenay
"What sort of complications could you have expected them to have during flight that you were preparing them for?"

Dr. William Sherman - Burn Surgeon, Shrines Hospital
"Well some of the problems with flight is that there is less pressure in the airplane and when this happens there can be parts of the tissue that expand and this can cause a lot of pressure and compression on structures, blood vessels, nerves and that's one of the problems we worry about. So what I was trying to do was relief some of that possible pressure that could build up."

Alex Courtenay
"Can you give us a rundown or a layout of what the next few months for these victims will look like?"

Dr. William Sherman - Burn Surgeon, Shrines Hospital
"Sure so we're going to take them back to Shriner's Hospital in Galveston and first thing we're going to be doing is taking then to surgery probably tomorrow to remove a lot of the dead skin that's on them. This is going to be covered with other skin probably from other donors and this going to be a repetitive process to make sure that they are clean, that they don't have infections and we're going to try and use their own skin to sort of cover them as much as we can."

Alex Courtenay
"When can the kids expect to return home to Belize?"

Dr. William Sherman - Burn Surgeon, Shrines Hospital
"It's probably going to be at least about 3 months before they will be even considering being returned back. We have a pretty extensive physical therapy programme, a nutrition programme, exercise programme, education programme that we enrol these children in so that they have not just the acute care with the burn surgery itself but then also their rehabilitation that follows with it."

Alex Courtenay
"I understand that with burns that are this substantial, this is something these children will have to live with and get treatment for the rest of their lives basically. Can you explain that a little to us?"

Dr. William Sherman - Burn Surgeon, Shrines Hospital
"That's correct so even after they return back here we'll have them continue to follow up with us at regular intervals. Usually the first one is at 6 months, then 12 months and then at that point we determine whether intervals but typically at least yearly to make that they are reintegrating, that their psychological needs are met, their physical needs are met and that they can continue to be integrated back into where they came from."