It's just Burnin' oil's offbeat humor. He's a farmer, you know.

Was she undergoing HBO therapy? and as to the pressurization....Think of an HBO unit having a problem like Apollo 1...Same end result is possible.

My Mother was in a rest home for almost 3 years before she passed. Much of it was on oxygen as her lungs were as full of tar and nicotine that was possible and still process air.

Even after all this and knowing that she was dying she begged us to smuggle a cigarette in for her as smoking was not allowed. We refused, knowing that cigarette's and oxygen do not mix but she still tried to get one from anyone.

Sad to see this happen...

human fat will burn like a torch in 100% o2

had a similar story here some time ago in Holland, woman on the operating table, local anesthetic , strapped to the table, and a flash fire due to the presence of O2....medical staff could do nothing but evacuate due to the intensity of the fire

what a way to go.

This is HORRIBLE and very preventable.
I spent 10 years in the home medical supply/care business. We commonly had a few patients each year that set them selves on fire from smoking, cooking with gas, space heaters, fire places, etc. Men with heavy beards that smoked were the most likely to catch themselves on fire. The O2 is denser than the room air and it saturates the clothing and area around the patient. Oxygen is an accelerator; it is NOT combustible by itself. Any petroleum product is a no-no around O2; even Vasoline. There had to be a source of ignition.
Very sad.

Like Ben said, the O2 does not like any petrolum products in the area. All pilots know this...

We had one idiot who forgot and was feeling poorly after a night of chasing flight attendents and too much booze, so he pulled the oxygen mask out and sucked on it for 10-15 minutes.

Removed the mask and his mouth and lips were burned from the oxygen mixing with the ChapStick on his lips and tongue. He did not talk on the radio for a long time and do this again.

I generally use a Betadine prep on patients before surgery. If a patient has an iodine allergy we use isopropyl alcohol. You have to make sure the abdomen is very dry before you use the bovie. It would be an easy mistake to make...with terrible consequences.

His comment is not inappropriate. My preferred response would be.

Oxygen itself is the fuel, what we're looking for is an ignition source.

Are you talking about me?
WTF?:confused:

edit I think Burnin' Oil's screen name is totally inappropriate for use in this thread. You should respectfully with draw your post.

Without further info it is tough to say what might have happened. Hospitals have very stringent rules and building codes about limiting sparks or sources of ignition around oxygen outlets and patient care areas. Fires in the hospital are very rare. As I said above, there usually is some sort of outside ignition source, I'm not saying that it couldn't have come from a spark from a piece of hospital equipment, but the chances are greater that the source was somewhere else.

You mentioned she had a troubled life, was she a smoker or did she have friends who smoked? Is it possible someone tried to light a cigarette in the room? I'm not trying to cast aspersions at all, it's just that cigarettes are by far the most common source of ignition in a situation like this and I have seen plenty of people first hand lighting up cigarettes in hospital rooms (patients included) despite the fact that smoking is not allowed in the hospital.

Not to be anal, but oxygen is an enabler, by itself it is not a fuel in any way whatsoever.

Not to be anal, but oxygen is an OXIDIZER.

Fuel - oxygen - heat
SmileWavy

I, too, am puzzled.......

No recent info. Just some more hearsay. It was at Highland Hospital in Oakland during a biopsy procedure in the operating room when the oxygen burned her face with 2nd and 3rd degree burns. She was flown to UC Davis medical where she started to recover. It was during a second procedure there that she had cardiac arrest.

Her funeral is tomorrow.

Steve, sorry to about your loss, I don't know, I know many people in the field, and because of some of them, I worry when others close to me go to where they work, others, I feel very good and safe. I don't know enough about the subject, even with the facts, to say anything other than your family is in my thoughts. I look forward to talking cars & having a few drinks with you next month.

Byron

Ah, ok well then that rules out cigarettes...

There have been cases of OR fires, perhaps some oxygen tubing was leaking, add a hot Bovie to that mix and you could have a fire. It's rare, but possible.

Very sad indeed but the new info makes more sense.

Please sir, pity the poor layman..Bovie?

A bovie is an electrical surgical tool. It can be used to cut tissue of cauterize. We mostly use it to stop small bleeders. Most surgeons use it to divide subcutaneous tissue on the way in to the abdomen or chest. It minimizes bleeding. They spark (arc) like crazy. Not a malfunction, it's how they work.

If this happened in the OR, I'm guessing they used an alcohol prep and it was still wet when they started the bovie. Very, very sad.

Oxygen is NOT a fuel, its one part of the fire triangle, oxygen, fuel, heat (ignition) = fire. Think of an oxy-acetylene torch, the oxygen makes the acetylene burn hotter (the fuel) when you give ignition (the sparker).