The Truman Blocker Burn Unit at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston notified regional emergency medical services on Tuesday that the facility is ready to care for adults and children with serious burns.
The burn center, which is located in John Sealy Hospital, will accept burn victims directly from accident scenes, according to Dr. David Herndon, director of UTMB's Blocker Burn Unit.
Because of the suspension of burns care at the associated Shriners Hospitals for Children-Galveston, the UTMB burn unit will now accept children for burn treatment.
"We are equipped to care for children with a burn covering up to 30 percent of the body," Herndon said. "Beginning April 15, we will be ready to manage a burn of any size on any person."
"The commitment to burn patients is part of the fabric at UTMB, from the classroom to the laboratory to the bedside," said Karen Sexton, interim executive vice president and CEO for the UTMB Health System
"We are proud of our burn team - the physicians, scientists, nurses, physical therapists, pharmacists, imaging technicians and other critical clinical and support staff - that together achieve remarkable outcomes for our patients," she said.
Twenty years ago, patients with burns over half their bodies usually did not survive. Today, Blocker Burns has among the highest survival rates in the nation for patients with major burns - which are defined as covering more than 80 percent of a patient's body.
The UTMB burn unit was the first burn center in the United States to be certified by both the American College of Surgeons and the American Burn Association.
Burns are one of the most complex and traumatic injuries a human can sustain. Extensive burns affect the circulatory and immune systems and all major organs, Herndon said.