Florida woman’s face catches fire during cyst surgery
'They woke me up and everyone around me was hysterical,’ 29-year-old victim tells mom
BY Philip Caulfield
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, December 1 2011, 3:22 PM
Kim Grice, 29, of Holt, Fla., ended up in a burn unit after a fire broke out on her face during a surgery to remove some cysts. (Courtesy of Grice Family via Crestview News Bulletin)
A 29-year-old mother of three is recovering in an Alabama burn unit after her face caught fire during a routine surgery earlier this week.
Kim Grice, of Holt, Fla., was having three cysts removed from her head at a hospital in Crestview, Fla., on Tuesday when a flash fire erupted, torching her face and neck, family members told the Crestview News Bulletin.
The blaze quickly fizzled, and doctors rushed her to the emergency room at North Okaloosa Medical Center, where she was stabilized.
She was then flown to the University of South Alabama Medical Center, where family members said she was able to talk to them on Wednesday.
Her mother, Ann Grice, said her daughter wasn't conscious when the blaze broke out.
"Kim said to me, 'They woke me up and everyone around me was hysterical. I don't know what happened to me,' " Ann Grice told the Destin Log.
Doctors at the panhandle hospital have kept the family in the dark about what caused the fire, Grice said.
"I still have not let her see or touch her face," Grice told the newspaper. "She is a very beautiful girl, my only child, and I don't have an answer for her."
Crestview fire officials told ABC News that surgery fires can flare up when electric or heat-generating tools, like lasers, mix with alcohol, oxygen and surgical coverings.
The North Okaloosa Medical Center said in a statement that they were investigating how the fire started.
"We are conducting a thorough review to fully understand what happened in a deliberate effort to prevent such an event from occurring again," the statement said.
Ann Grice said her family was stunned that her daughter went in for a routine procedure and ended up in a burn unit.
"Her eyes were too swollen for her to see me when I had visiting time this morning," Grice told the Destin Log. "She is just nauseated and I think, in shock. We all are."
