Pippie's skin graft a success - surgeons
2012-06-18 22:58
Pippie Kruger's parents, Anice and Erwin, are shown a picture of her new skin. (Bongiwe Gumede, Beeld)
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2012-06-19 08:45
The first cloned skin graft to be performed in South Africa is a success. The skin graft was performed last week on three-year-old Isabella Pippie Kruger, who sustained third degree burns to 80% of her body. WATCH
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Johannesburg - The skin graft on Limpopo toddler Pippie Kruger, who sustained third degree burns to 80% of her body, has been a success, surgeons said on Monday.
"Overall we can say it's a success," plastic surgeon Dr Ridwan Mia told reporters in Johannesburg.
Mia said 90% of the skin which was grown in a laboratory in the United States, and then flown to South Africa, took, with there being only isolated islands where it did not attach to her body.
"It’s perfect," an ecstatic Anice Kruger told Beeld on Monday night after seeing the first photos of Pippie’s new skin.
Anice and husband Erwin embraced when they saw the pictures.
Sheets of Pippie's own skin were grown using skin taken from her groin.
The procedure was performed at Johannesburg's Garden City Clinic, where the child has been in the high care unit for the last six months.
It was the first time this type of advanced skin graft had been performed in Africa. It had been performed in the United States and Europe.
Kruger had been hospitalised since a bottle of flammable liquid exploded in her father's hands and she was covered in flames at a braai on New Year's Eve.
- SAPA
