The patient becomes vulnerable to infection. And a body without even a small percentage of its skin has trouble retaining heat, so the body temperature can drop dangerously low. Because of this physical stress, a host of other chain-reactions also are triggered. The body goes into shock. Organs swell like balloons.
Breathing becomes strained.
The body has trouble metabolizing nutrients, at a time it needs calories more than ever to heal. These complex reactions require complicated, costly, labor-intensive treatments and monitoring. Because there is no skin on the patient where drugs can be injected, a food line and monitoring devices are surgically implanted by a doctor. Expensive, high-calorie liquid food is delivered intravenously, to aid in healing. To prevent infection, nurses wrap the patient in gauze that has been infused with an antibiotic cream, called Silvadene.