By Ryan Poppe, Texas Public Radio News via Audio Texas
SAN ANTONIO – Doctors at Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio have admitted Gov. Greg Abbott to the hospital after evaluating him for severe second and third degree burns. The governor was burned while on a family vacation at a resort lodge in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Prior to the shootings in Dallas last week, the governor’s office was dealing with its own unexpected situation, Gov. Abbott was suffering burns after scalding hot water was spilled on his lower legs and feet.
Abbott, who is bound to a wheelchair due to a spinal injury, still has feeling in his legs and the governor’s office says he is in a great deal of pain.
And according to the Governor’s Office, after being examined by doctors at BAMC it was determined that Abbott had a bacterial infection related to the burns.
On Tuesday the governor will undergo skin grafts, a procedure that Dr. Lillian Liao who specializes in the treatment of burns at San Antonio’s University Hospital says is common when a person has injuries this severe.
“Meaning we have to excise the entire burned area and put skin on it from another part of the body”
But Liao says when a burn becomes severe it may also mean a person forever loses their sense of touch in an affected area.
“Because when the entire dermis has been burned down to the fat, they may be some small nerve endings that are still left but a majority of that burn has basically demolished those nerve endings”
The governor’s procedure will involve local anesthesia and he’s expected to then return to Austin. The governor’s office says Abbott will not be able to attend the Tuesday’s officer memorial in Dallas.
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