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The new deadly ecstasy ...LITTLE ROCK -- They often arrive anonymously, dumped in the hospital's emergency room bay with burns over their bodies.Some become blind because they won't tell a doctor how they were burned, afraid that if they mention any of the chemicals used to make methamphetamine they'll be prosecuted. As the number of burn victims from methamphetamine lab explosions and fires rise, doctors at burn units say they've had to take a new approach to treating patients. "They hardly ever say, 'I was working on my meth lab,"' said Jimmy Parks, a nurse in the burn unit at Arkansas Children's Hospital. "Usually the water heater blew up. And then it kind of comes along when we finally work it out." The patients drain already financially-strapped burn units, Parks said. Statistics from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency show that Missouri had 2,207 methamphetamine lab seizures in 2001, up from 863 in 2000. The numbers are lower for Arkansas, with 366 seizures in 2001 up from 235 in 2000. And in Oklahoma there were 580 in 2001, up from 383 in 2000. The numbers soar for southern states. For instance, in New York there were eight seizures in 2001. "You can pretty much guess that people who are running meth labs out of their back room are not insured," Parks said. "Percentage-wise they tax more than the average patients." That's not the only problem patients injured in methamphetamine lab accidents bring to burn units. "These guys come in and we have the police sitting with them sometimes," Parks said. "Sometimes they leave against medical advice. They're afraid they're going to get in trouble with the law." Doctors take great pains to treat meth manufacturers whose shops blow up, said Dr. Ken Larson, who heads the burn unit at St. John's Hospital in Springfield, Mo. He said it's his job to treat the patient and the police's to fix the methamphetamine crime. "That's a fine line," he said. "It's not something where I'm willing to call the police department, where I say, 'Joe over here, he's been making meth and you need to check out his house."' Larson said doctor-patient confidentiality enters the equation. Police say they would visit with prosecutors before questioning any medical workers. "We wouldn't do anything to jeopardize the doctor-patient relationship," said Capt. Mike Davidson of the Arkansas State Police. "But some doctors might be willing to openly discuss what would have been said." Larson is writing a paper he plans to distribute to hospitals that regularly deal with injuries from meth lab explosions. He said that emergency workers on the front lines need to know what to look for when they first treat the patients, and that workers can expect the patients to lie. "There's always a danger to the paramedics," Larson said. "They (the burn victim) can still have chemicals on them, so they can get my personnel contaminated." Common injuries include chemical burns and scalds to the skin. Other chemicals can blind a victim by seeping into their eyes and melting their corneas. Those burns take days to set in. Pam Tuck worked as a nurse at St. John's and said that patients wouldn't 'fess up to her about how they got hurt, even though she could often tell the cause. |
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