Anne Silverstein
Everyone in the burn unit and the support staff on other floors were awesome – it was a best-of-the-best kind of thing.
For Anne Silverstein, what started as a casual cookout with friends turned into a trip to Chippenham Hospital’s burn clinic.
A run-in with a fire pit at her house led to 2nd and 3rd degree burns on both of her legs. Luckily one of her friends who is an HCA Virginia nurse was there and quickly helped clean and wrap the wounds, but after a few days, she encouraged Silverstein to go to Chippenham.
“They weren’t going to get any better on their own,” she said. “An infection had started setting in.”
Silverstein saw Dr. Samuel Jones who immediately took her back to surgery for a series of skin grafts and a Recell treatment, which used a small sample of Silverstein’s own skin to create a spray for her legs. The nurses who helped her along with Jones provided a great experience, she said.
“All of the support was amazing,” she said. “It felt like a world-class experience after going through something slightly traumatic. Everyone in the burn unit and the support staff on other floors were awesome – it was a best-of-the-best kind of thing.”
She said it’ll take about a year, but there will not be glaring scars as long as she continues to care for her legs.
In the meantime, she put a brick wall around the fire pit and will heed Jones’ advice to come in sooner if she finds herself in a similar situation again.
“It was pretty wild … I feel incredibly lucky that I ended up at Chippenham,” she said.
Chippenham Hospital is a Level 1 trauma center and has achieved provisional status as a Level 1 burn center from the Virginia Department of Health, expanding the hospital’s adult and pediatric burn care services for the greater Richmond community.