Burn UCSD Medical Center handling all fire patients - California

Hats off and thanks to the fire fighters here in California...we appreciate what you do on the front line and hope these terrible fires are under control soon...BD

SAN DIEGO The burn unit at UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest, the only such unit in the county, has received all of the region's seriously burned patients from the wildfires over the last two days. By Monday evening, the 18-bed unit was full. Doctors and nurses had to use other intensive care beds on an overflow basis. They were treating 16 fire victims and several patients with injuries not related to the blazes. The burn victims included five firefighters, three of whom were in critical condition, one in fair and one in good condition. There were five civilians in critical condition, four in fair condition, one in good condition and one recent admission whose condition was not yet disclosed. Like most major hospitals around the county, UCSD canceled elective procedures for the rest of the week to make way for an expected stream of patients with respiratory problems or other fire-related injuries.

Coimbra and the burn unit's staff were particularly taken with the firefighters who became injured while battling the Harris Fire in South County.