Work is under way to heal the severely burnt skin of White Island’s volcano eruption victims, but as the 19 people hold on in hospital it is invisible wounds that are also threatening lives.
On Monday morning, the cruise ship at the centre of the tragedy, Ovation of the Seas, is set to sail back into Sydney while back in New Zealand divers will resume a search for two people still missing.
Meanwhile, another technical mission continues as highly skilled burns specialists at The Alfred in Melbourne and several Sydney hospitals are working around the clock to save survivors.
Finding unburnt patches on survivors’ bodies is among the priorities, as doctors may use that to regrow a patient’s damaged cells.
Another 1.2 million square centimetres of allograft skin was being brought to NZ from the US. Donors have also come forward to Australian hospitals.
The doctors’ task has been described by a top plastic surgeon as “emotionally one of the hardest things” they will ever have to do.
Sydney couple Nick and Marion London are among the patients to have made it through their first round of skin grafting.
Both suffered burns to almost half their bodies, as well as internal chemical burns from breathing in toxic gas during the fatal blast.
Tom Nieuwland, a close family friend of the couple, told The New Daily that both of their surgeries at The Alfred “went well”.
“The doctors are all keeping a very close eye on them as it’s still early days,” Mr Nieuwland said on Sunday.
“Doctors have told (their son) Matt that the recovery time will be months, not weeks, due to the intensity and severity of the burns.”
At Sydney’s Concord hospital, another Australian who had been rescued from the island and flown home could not be saved.
His death was the first to occur in Australia since the eruption.
NZ authorities said on Saturday that another of the initial survivors had died at Waikato hospital.
The hospital deaths took the eruption fatality toll to 16.
New Zealand police also confirmed they had identified three more Australian victims – Adelaide’s Zoe Hosking, 15, and her stepfather Gavin Dallow, 53, as well as Sydney’s Anthony Langford, 51.
Local tour guide Tipene Maangi, 24, was also named.
Facing high chances the volcano would erupt again, a crack squad of rescuers had ventured back to the island at the weekend, retrieving six bodies on Friday and returning again on Sunday to look for others still missing.
The body of Melbourne woman Krystal Browitt, 21, was among the six returned in coffins to families on the mainland.
Two people – an Australian tourist and a New Zealand tour guide – are yet to be found.
Authorities believe it’s possible they may have been washed into a ravine after the eruption, and they did spot what they believed to be a body in the water.
But divers found no sign of them during their underwater searches.
While authorities weigh up conditions before deciding when the search mission should continue, police have the arduous task of identifying the bodies so they can be returned to their families for burial.
Teams are analysing jewellery, clothing, dental records and fingerprints, as well as DNA samples from belongings like hair and toothbrushes.
Many of the tourists had left their luggage on board the cruise ship on which they had been travelling.
Of the 19 others in hospital, it is likely all of them were put in induced comas and on ventilators.
Dr Tony Tonks, an experienced plastic surgeon who has worked in three of New Zealand’s major burns units, said he had faith in the “excellent teams” treating victims of the White Island eruption.
“I know my old colleagues will be working around the clock to get the job done,” Dr Tonks told The New Daily from his clinic in Canberra.
“It is really distressing for everyone involved – the family, the patient, and the teams looking after them. Treating patients with major burns is emotionally one of the hardest things you have to deal with.”
Dr Tonks said it’s likely the surgeons would have started emergency treatment by performing an escharotomy to help the patients retain their fluids and blood.
“When someone suffers a full thickness burn, the skin shrinks and strangles the muscles – it’s like someone’s got a belt and tightened it around the area,” Dr Tonks said.
An escharotomy involves a deep incision around the burned area to help release some of the pressure caused by the skin contractions.
Dr Frank Lin, a plastic surgeon at Melbourne’s Epworth Eastern Hospital, said that unlike a sunburn where the skin can regenerate by itself, a full thickness burn means the skin “essentially dies”.
“Beyond performing a barrier role, skin helps to regulate our body temperature and to protect the body from UV – it’s no less important than any other major organ,” Dr Lin told The New Daily.
“(A full thickness burn) is a major trauma and serious injury.”
The blast from the volcano eruption would have also damaged the victims’ airways, with many inhaling toxic gases, ash and hot water, Dr Tonks said.
The remaining patients are expected to undergo surgery in coming days.
It will be a long road to recovery, and survivors with badly burnt airways may require tubes to help them breathe.
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