A Chinese hospital is seeking international medical help to artificially grow skin for two affected survivors of a plane crash in northeast China last month.
The Brazilian-made jet of Henan Airlines, with 96 passengers on board, crashed in Yichun, a remote, mountainous city in Heilongjiang province on August 24. Forty-two of them died. It was the deadliest aviation accident in China since 2004.
“Many of the injured suffered serious burns, and the traditional treatment of autotransplantation (skin grafting from a healthy unaffected part to an injured area) is not appropriate,” said Prof. Wang Guosheng, deputy director of the burns department at the No.1 Hospital affiliated to the Harbin Medical University, Harbin. Wang said a woman survivor had suffered 99 per cent burns and a male survivor, 65 per cent burns.
Autotransplantation was impossible for the woman, and the man had undergone two autotransplant surgeries already, he said.
“We plan to use advanced stem cell transplantation (SCT) technology to grow skin. We have invited experts on SCT studies from the Harvard University, Australia's Monash University, China's Peking University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong to give remote consultations.”
Medical experts from Beijing and Hong Kong would come to Harbin to participate in the treatment, he said.
“If needed, the American and Australian experts will also come.”
