Female patient's face ignites in 'flash fire' during a routine procedure to biopsy a cyst

A hospital patient is recovering today after her face caught on fire during a routine surgery.



Kim Grice’s face was badly burned in the ‘flash fire’ that sparked during an outpatient procedure to have biopsies performed on cysts on her head in Florida Tuesday.



Firefighters rushed to the North Okaloosa Medical Centre’s Surgery ward and the 29-year-old mother of three was flown by helicopter to the University of South Alabama Burns unit.

Panic: Patient Kim Grice's face caught on fire during a routine hospital procedure in Florida

Hospital officials have not yet revealed what caused the fire on Tuesday morning, although surgical flare-ups are usually caused by heat, often from tools like lasers and are fuelled by alcohol, oxygen and surgical drapes.



Cause: The cause of the fire is still unknown although surgical flare-ups are usually caused by heat, often from tools like lasers and are fuelled by alcohol, oxygen and surgical drapes

Ms Grice’s mother, Ann, was said to be furious about the incident.

‘I signed a release that they could do whatever they needed to do with a routine surgery – I did not sign a release that they could set her face on fire,’ she told the Northwest Florida Daily News.



She said her daughter was in hospital to have three cysts removed during the 8am operation.



‘Kim said to me, ‘They woke me up and every one around me was hysterical. I don’t know what happened to me.

‘I still have not let her see or touch her face. She is a very beautiful girl, my only child, and I don’t have an answer for her,’ Mrs Grice said.



'Her eyes were too swollen for her to see me when I had visiting time this morning. She is just nauseated and I think, in shock. We all are.

Hysterics: The victim's mother says her daughter woke up to her hospital room in hysterics but not knowing what had happened to her

‘She had headaches and the doctor was going to remove three cysts and biopsy them but something went bad wrong and my daughter is now in a burn unit with burn specialists and I still do not know what happened. No one will tell me why or how this happened to her.'



Ms Grice suffered second-degree burns on her face and neck.



‘A flash fire is basically a fire that flashes up and then goes out. The fire was already out when our staff arrived,’ Crestview Fire Department Chief Joseph Traylor told ABC News.



Apology: The Florida hospital the procedure was done has since apologized

The hospital apologized for the incident.



‘We are conducting a thorough review to fully understand what happened in a deliberate effort to prevent such an event from occurring again,’ a hospital spokesperson said in a statement.

