Elderly Patient Badly Burned in Nebraska Operating Room Fire Near Death

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- An elderly woman in critical condition from burns suffered last month in an operating room fire is not expected to live much longer, her attorney said.

Maxine Stryker, 86, suffered burns on her head, neck and shoulders in the fire during a routine biopsy procedure at Methodist Hospital in Omaha.

A malpractice lawsuit was filed late last week against Methodist, surgeon John Batter and anesthesiologist Kent Hutton, said Stryker's attorney, Michael Dowd.

Bed linens or a neck roll supporting her head caught fire during a routine procedure, causing Stryker's head, neck and shoulders to be engulfed in flames, Dowd said.

``Her burns were absolutely horrendous,'' he said. ``It was just an unbelievable chain of events.''

Dowd said Stryker initially went into the hospital for a bowel obstruction and a colonoscopy. Doctors then scheduled a cervical mediastinoscopy _ a procedure commonly used when doctors want to test lymph nodes for cancer.

Dowd said Stryker was unconscious during the Oct. 22 procedure. He said medical records indicate that a cautery unit - a device that uses intense heat to stanch blood or destroy tissue - was used to cut through fatty tissue.

At some point, the records indicate that doctors noticed an odd smell.

``It became apparent that there was a wisp of smoke coming from behind the patient's head,'' Dowd said, citing medical records.

Stryker's burns were so severe that she had to undergo skin grafts Nov. 12. Doctors grafted skin from her right leg onto her shoulder and neck area, Dowd said.

An attorney for one of the surgeon calls the incident unfortunate, but that neither doctor was at fault. The surgeon's attorney said the fire seemed to have been caused by some type of equipment malfunction.