Burned out

Ivan Smith was wheeled out of St. Agnes’ Center for Advanced Burn and Wound Care last week and up to his fourth-floor room.

Such transfers were once a matter of routine at the hospital, but not anymore.

Smith, of Woodbury, N.J., was one of the last patients to be treated at the 30-year-old burn center at Broad and McKean.

Executives from the companies that own St. Agnes Medical Center and Methodist Hospital, Broad and Wolf, announced earlier this year that the two facilities would consolidate services.

Under the plan, St. Agnes would become a long-term-care facility, while Methodist concentrates on acute care.

The burn center closed because it offered an acute-care service — something St. Agnes is no longer licensed to provide, said spokesperson Teresa Heavens.

"Methodist has acquired the acute-care license for all the acute-care beds in South Philly, so we will no longer provide acute-care services at St. Agnes," she explained.

The change marks a major transition for both patients and staff.

"It’s sad to see all of acute care come to an end at St. Agnes Medical Center," said Vice President for Patient Care Services Mary Beth Edger, under whose direction the burn center fell.

But Edger added that she believes the change is "a good thing."

"I think the people of South Philly will reap the benefits of the two hospitals," she said. "It will meet the needs of the community to have continuing care and acute care."

Still, patients like Smith might go elsewhere for burn treatment from now on. The 28-year-old spent three months at St. Agnes’ center after being admitted Jan. 21.

His medical problems stemmed from brain injuries he suffered when he was hit by a car as a small child. At age 16, Smith needed aneurysm surgery. Over time, complications developed, including seizures and the onset of dangerous behavior — including a propensity for starting fires.

During a stay at a rehabilitation center earlier this year, Smith set a towel on fire with a lighter. Flames engulfed not only the towel, but the young man as well.

An ambulance rushed Smith across the Walt Whitman Bridge to South Philly’s only burn center. The victim spent 98 days in the unit and underwent 10 surgeries — nine skin grafts and an operation to insert a trachea and feeding tube, said his mother, Johanna Smith.

Smith even had to have part of his right leg amputated as a result of the fire and needed reconstructive surgery for his buttocks, his mother added.

A part-time nurse and mother of three other grown sons, Johanna Smith said she’s more than pleased with the treatment that Ivan received at the burn center.

"They were absolutely fabulous — everybody I dealt with from the cleaning lady down to the occupational therapist," she said. "Even the man who collected the trash would stop and talk to my son. They were always very good in asking what they could do to help."

The individual attention meant the most, Johanna added. Knowing Ivan was an Elvis fan, the staff would often play The King’s tapes.

The Burn and Wound Care Center gave those who worked there a unique perspective, said nurse JoAnn Cuddy-Larkins, a 15-year veteran.

"You see such devastation that can occur in a moment," said the nurse. "It really teaches you not to sweat the small stuff — the being stuck in traffic, that kind of thing. It really does teach you that that stuff is not so important."

As intense as the job could be at times, it was also rewarding, she noted. Cuddy-Larkins said she took great pleasure in seeing a victim defy the odds and go on to lead a productive life.

Being a burn nurse quickly becomes one’s identity, she explained. "It becomes part of who you are, not what you do. The people who do it — you either love it or hate it. And the people who love it stay in it for a very long time."

All the burn center nurses have found jobs in the Mercy Health System — which owns St. Agnes — or elsewhere, said Cuddy-Larkins, who will remain at the hospital as nurse manager of the new long-term-care facility.

The nurse has mixed feelings about the recent closure and feels it has left a void locally.

"The burn center has been a source of pride in South Philly," she said. "It’s what St. Agnes has been known for."

Now, South Philadelphians have two regional choices for burn care — Crozier-Chester Medical Center in Delaware County and Temple University Hospital in North Philly.

Heavens said she’s confident Crozier-Chester and Temple can handle the volume St. Agnes used to experience.

"We worked with the Philadelphia Burn Foundation so we know, based on data, that the needs of our community can be met by the two remaining burn centers at Crozier and Temple," she said.

When St. Agnes’ Burn and Wound Care Center opened in 1974, it was the first comprehensive burn-treatment center in the Greater Philadelphia region.

"I think that since it was the first burn center around, they should have tried to preserve it a little bit," said Johanna Smith. "It had a reputation that everybody knew."

In 1999, the center built the Joseph R. Rizzo Helistop, which enabled emergency patients to be airlifted from all over the area.

Over the past 30 years, more than 5,200 burn patients passed through the center’s doors, said Edger.

Factory workers, firefighters and people suffering from household burns and scalds made up the bulk of early cases, said Heavens.

But over the years, the number of patients admitted to the center decreased, as did the severity of injuries, she added.

Both Edger and Heavens credit education and public awareness for contributing to the turnaround.

"The good thing is, over the course of the 30 years the center was open, there was a lot of information-sharing and care," Heavens said. "Because of that, they were not seeing the types of burns they used to get 30 years ago."

In March 2002, the burn center received verification from the American Burn Association and the American College of Surgeons. Verification meant the center was nationally recognized for its excellence in care, explained Edger.

"I certainly believe we had an excellent team of practitioners that kept this unit going, and I think they need to be recognized for their excellence in burn care," she said.