And now for something completely different.
As you probably know, I generally use this blog to talk about entertaining and fun and unusually talented people, many of whom are friends of mine, and some of which you may not know about. I generally stick to anything involving the creative arts, but am open to anything that’s interesting and perhaps a bit unusual.
This is one of those posts, and it’s not just fascinating, it represents a significant medical breakthrough. And it’s a bit serious, so brace yourself for the subject matter.
Below is a video on YouTube that is a snippet of a National Geographic piece about something new they’re calling the “Skin Gun”. The idea is that if someone is a burn victim and has lost a relatively large area of skin, this spray gun, which is sort of like a spray paint device, can be used to apply a solution to the burned area and allow the patient to heal quickly.
And “quickly” is an understatement. In the video, you’ll see the first patient on which the device was used – Matthew Uram, described in the video as a Pennsylvania state police officer. After experiencing second-degree burns, his doctor asked him if he was interested in trying this device, and he did. It took 90 minutes to prepare the solution and apply it. “They did it on a Friday, my follow-up was that Monday and … it was healed.”
Amazing.
Note: I generally embed videos into my blog posts, but the video below is not embedded. It looks like it is, but when you click on it, you’ll see how it reacts and you’ll be able to tell that it’s not embedded, it’s actually a link to the YouTube site, so you’ll see it over on the YouTube site. The reason I set it up in this unusual way is simple: if I embed a YouTube video, the video automatically incorporates the “splash” screen chosen by the YouTube user who uploaded the video. For this video, the user apparently chose a somewhat shocking “splash” image from the video of a burn victim. It makes sense over at YouTube, he was clearly trying to get attention and convey that it’s a burn victim video. And you’ll see that image in the video below. It’s not completely revolting – I’m sure you’ve seen worse – but it’s a bit shocking in the context of Skere9, which is a fun and entertaining site. I wanted a chance to say “brace yourself” first. So consider yourself warned!
The video is below, and highly fascinating.
