SKIN GRAFTING EXTRAORDINARY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81861, 10 October 1906, Page 4

SKIN GRAFTING EXTRAORDINARY.

One of the mmt remarkable skingrafting operations known in the histoy of surgery has been accomplished in the case of George Kilby, of Brooklyn (America), who has had a whole S'de of his body re-made with 4U pieces of skin grafted on him. Kilby, according to the New York correspondent of a London paper, was .werely burned on the right side of the face and body on the 6th May, by the explosion of an alcohol lamp. Before the flames could be extinguished they had burned beneath the akin, and scars, which would have the side of his body almost use'<s-, would have resulted, but for the work of science. Not only did the immediate members of Kilby's * imily contribui' cuticle for the restoration of his body —his twelve-year-old daughter was the first to volunteer—but his physician, Dr Herbert A'len. his nurse, and many of his friends, particularly from Hanson-place Baptist church, where h- was active in church work, also made sacrifices. Thirty piece* of skin were cut from Mrs Kilby, and ten from her twelve-year-o!d daughter. Miss Snvder, the contributed thirty pieces, and Kilby's father, who is sixty years old, had twenty pieces cut fiom his right arm. More than twenty of his friends al-o underwent operations on his behalf. The names | and addresses of all those contributing were published in a roll of honor in New York newspapers. After being removed, the skin patches h ere treated with antiseptics, and placed 01 Kilby s wounds. This grafting process continued for nearly two | months, and it was so successful that there will only be a slight scar on the man s face. Operations of this natuic are common in hospital work, but seldom, if ever, has so largf an area oi a man s body been coveied.