Surgeon Fiona Wood reveals shocking reality facing burn victims

A pioneering Australian surgeon who helped to invent ‘spray on skin’ and delivered critical care to Bali Bombing survivors now has another critical dilemma to solve.

Trailblazing surgeon Professor Fiona Wood AO to inspire science lovers at QIMR Berghofer. Pic Annette Dew

A pioneering Australian surgeon who helped to invent ‘spray on skin’ and delivered critical care to Bali Bombing survivors now wants to know why burn victims are living much shorter lives.

Professor Fiona Wood AO, a former Australian of the Year, and her colleague Marie Stone were thrust into the spotlight during the late 1990s with their ‘spray on skin’ invention that applied lab grown cells directly on burns to reduce healing times and lasting scarring.

Speaking in Brisbane at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute on Friday, the acclaimed plastic surgeon said her current focus was on unravelling why healed burn victims were dying younger than the general population.

“There was this young boy I met in 2003. He had burns to 80 per cent of his body surface area as an eight year old. He survived beautifully,” Ms Wood said.

“Then he developed a hepatocellular carcinoma with no risk factors and died as an 11-year-old. Coincidences don’t sit well with me. I want to know why.”

Trailblazing surgeon Professor Fiona Wood AO to inspire science lovers at QIMR Berghofer. Pic Annette Dew

After trawling through patient data sets, the West Australian doctor established a link between burns patients and complications later in life.

“We were able to demonstrate that if you have had a burn injury at any point in your life, it impacted your life trajectory,” Ms Wood said.

“We tried to bring together animal work, human work and population data trying to say that if you’re 65 and you’ve had a burn in a previous part of your life your chances of a cardiovascular event, a left ventricular failure or a stroke are increased.

“Your length of stay (in hospital) will be increased and your mortality will be increased from that event. Your life expectancy has changed by seven years.”

But patients with major burns, those that cover more than 20 per cent of the body area, are not the worst affected.

Professor Wood said 96 per cent of children and 84 per cent of the adults impacted later in life did not suffer major burns.

She said the answer as to why that is, is fundamental in making sure the trade-off for painful treatments and recovery is worth it.

“We know we are onto something,” Ms Wood said.

Dr Fiona Wood was the 2005 Australian of the Year. Picture: Kym Smith

“Burns are massively inflammatory it's like putting someone inside a pressure cooker.

“The quality of the pain, the outcome must be worth the pain of survival. People survive these injuries so it is our duty to do this moving forward.”

Professor Wood spoke in Brisbane as part of belated International Women’s Day celebrations to highlight the need for more women in STEM.

Despite her extensive achievements, Professor Wood recalled losing her first surgical job after employers found out she had children, and the constant obstacles and assumptions faced throughout her career because of her gender.

Queensland’s Chief Scientist Professor Kerrie Wilson said while times had changed, women still only made up about 20 per cent of medical and other research fields.

“Representation in the STEM workforce is below where we want it to be … time is showing us that at the moment you can quickly unravel all the good work you’ve done,” Professor Wood said.

“We want the stem workforce to represent the wider population.

“That way we will get solutions to things like cancer, trauma – all these issues that affect the population kind of evenly, that there are better solutions for everyone.

Originally published as Surgeon Fiona Wood reveals shocking reality facing burn victims