Burn patient Ackalia Dunkley recuperating following surgeries

Fourteen-year-old burn patient Ackalia Dunkley has successfully completed four surgeries in the United States and is expected to return to Jamaica within four to six weeks.

Dunkley is receiving much-needed medical treatment at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Georgia.

Dunkley sustained mostly second-degree burns, which affected 50 percent of her body, during a gas stove explosion at her home in Burnt Savannah, St Elizabeth on Friday, June 16.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, the burn centre's president Dr Zaheed Hassan, was optimistic when he gave an update on Dunkley's progress.

“For this acute phase, she will need one more surgery, a dressing change, and the staples to be removed from her legs. After that, I don't think she will need any more surgeries, but that depends on how we find the next surgery, whether all the grafts are taken,” Hassan explained.

“In the future, if she has bad scarring, she might need some laser surgery, but that is something we will evaluate in future,” he added.

Hassan said the teen would leave the hospital whenever he sees her fit to do so.

“The way it is looking, I would like to discharge her from the hospital when I see she is walking about on her own and eating and taking care of her own hygiene by herself. Probably in another month or so, she should be able to go to school and take care of her own work.”

A total of eight surgeons were involved in the teen's surgeries.

“I was happy to see that the doctors there, even with minimal resources, they have done a phenomenal job that Akelia did not get infected or septic,” Hassan said.

- Ashley Anguin

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