Surgeries

When it was determined that I would survive, the doctors had to start doing skin grafts. As I mentioned previously I was not supposed to live more than five days, and the reasons for that were, because seriously burned individuals usually develop pneumonia or their wounds become infected, and if that happens your chances of survival really drop. When it was determined I was strong enough to tolerate anesthesia and an operation the doctor started doing skin grafts on the really serious burn areas on my body. This required finding good skin, which I had very little of, in fact the first operation they used pigskin to stabilize a badly burned area on my body. I had seventeen operations involving skin grafts and most of the skin they used came from my head, which they used three times. My head was the only area of my body that had skin they could use, so every time the skin grew back on my head, they used it on the other parts of my body. When they take skin from another area of your body, it's called a donor site, which I found out could be more painful than actual area they use the skin on. In fact that's the way it was, because what they were doing was peeling the skin off and if you can imagine how painful that would be, then you can understand what I was feeling.