NAN reporter first to survive high degree burns in JUTH – Consultant

Polycarp Auta, a reporter with the News Agency of Nigeria in Jos, Plateau State, is the first to survive a 70 per cent burn in the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Dr. Akintunde Akintayo, a consultant, has said.

“His ability to pull through after such massive damage to his body still amazes medics here,” Akintayo, a consultant in JUTH’s Department of Plastic and Reconstruction Surgery, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Jos on Tuesday.

He said the hospital did not give Auta much chances of survival.

Auta, in February 2014, sustained first degree burns rated at about 70 per cent, following a gas explosion that engulfed his residence in Jos.

The journalist was on admission at the Intensive Care Unit of in JUTH for three months.

“The quantum and percentage of injuries Auta sustained were so enormous and did not give him a medical chance of surviving,” said the consultant.

Akintayo said the medics’ fear was particularly premised on the lack of basic knowledge, expertise, facilities and technology in the management of burns in Nigeria.

He said: “When he was brought to the hospital, going by the large number of injuries sustained from the burns, it was logical to conclude he will not live.

“We had numerous patients in the past who sustained lesser percentages compared to his case and still didn’t survive it.

“Apparently, he is the first to have sustained that percentage of burns and survived it in the history of this hospital.”

However, Akintayo said the survival of the survivor was not left to luck as the medical team worked assiduously to ensure he stayed alive.

He also attributed the survival of the burnt reporter from the inferno to his “innate will to stay alive, relations’ ability to meet financial needs in view of the expensive nature of burns treatment, as well as his young age.

He said: “When he was brought to us, he had more than 75 per cent mortality, his chances of survival was just 25 per cent.

“But his young age counted as one of the major reasons for his survival and fast recovery.”

NAN reports that Auta had since resumed normal duties in his Jos office.

NAN.