HLS 15RS-4712 ORIGINAL
2015 Regular Session
HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 218
BY REPRESENTATIVE ALFRED WILLIAMS
COMMENDATIONS: Commends the Baton Rouge General's Regional Burn Center on a
tradition of providing expert burn care for all ages
1 A RESOLUTION
2To commend the Baton Rouge General's Regional Burn Center on a tradition of providing
3 expert burn care for all ages.
4 WHEREAS, receiving proper care after a severe burn can mean the difference
5between life and death and in some cases, patients who receive immediate care have a
6ninety-four percent survival rate; and
7 WHEREAS, the Baton Rouge General's Regional Burn Center was established in
81970 and is one of only one hundred twenty-five specialized burn centers in the United
9States; and
10 WHEREAS, it is the first designated burn facility in Louisiana and the fourteenth
11such facility nationwide; and
12 WHEREAS, it provides burn treatment services for the entire Gulf Coast region and
13petrochemical corridor and is the only comprehensive and pediatric burn treatment facility
14in central and south Louisiana and the state of Mississippi; and
15 WHEREAS, the Baton Rouge General's Regional Burn Center has received referrals
16from over one hundred twenty-five hospitals across Louisiana and Mississippi in the last
17year and treats more than two hundred zip codes across the Gulf Coast region; and
18 WHEREAS, more than ninety percent of all inpatient burn victims in the greater
19Baton Rouge area are treated annually, and the center has provided more than six thousand
20treatments over the last three years for those suffering from flame, scald, electrical,
21chemical, and other burn-related injuries; and
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HR NO. 218
1 WHEREAS, the Baton Rouge General's Regional Burn Center provides
2comprehensive inpatient and outpatient burn treatment and rehabilitation for adults and
3children, including occupational and physical therapy; and
4 WHEREAS, a multidisciplinary team of burn experts with over seventy years of
5physician experience in burn care comprise the medical professionals at the center; and
6 WHEREAS, research is currently being conducted on a new skin grafting treatment
7to assist with decreasing length of stay, hospital costs, and scarring; and
8 WHEREAS, the Baton Rouge General's Regional Burn Center's commitment to the
9community extends beyond the hospital walls by offering support groups, counseling, and
10educational resources; and
11 WHEREAS, the center sends an average of twenty local pediatric burn survivors
12each year to the statewide summer burn camp, "I'm Still Me", and its nurses and staff
13volunteer to assist with coordination and staffing of the camp each year; and
14 WHEREAS, the camp provides an opportunity for children who have survived the
15physical and emotional trauma of burn injuries to interact with other survivors to aid in
16building self-esteem and to support emotional healing; and
17 WHEREAS, the Baton Rouge General's Regional Burn Center also hosts an annual
18survivor's banquet to reunite burn patients and the staff in celebration of their survivorship;
19and
20 WHEREAS, the education provided by the Baton Rouge General's Regional Burn
21Center team of experts to the public regarding burn safety, as well as its partnership with
22area chemical plants to enhance accident prevention and safety programs, has resulted in a
23dramatic decrease in chemical-related burn injuries; and
24 WHEREAS, the team was recently published in the Journal of Burn Care &
25Research for its clinical research with a state-of-the-art skin grafting treatment for large
26burns, and it has received international recognition for the critical care provided to the burn
27patients from the Philippines who were injured in the November 2012 oil rig explosion in
28the Gulf of Mexico; and
29 WHEREAS, the medical expertise rendered by the Baton Rouge General's Regional
30Burn Center team to victims of burn-related injuries plays a vital role in affording medical
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HR NO. 218
1students, residents, and ancillary staff valuable clinical training in critical care, burn
2treatment, and rehabilitation in Louisiana, Mississippi, and across the United States.
3 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the House of Representatives of the
4Legislature of Louisiana does hereby commend the regional burn center in the state, the
5Baton Rouge General's Regional Burn Center, on the compassionate and expert care it
6provides to adults and children in Baton Rouge, the Gulf Coast region, and the United States
7of America.
8 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
9president and chief executive officer of the Baton Rouge General Medical Center, Mark F.
10Slyter.
DIGEST
The digest printed below was prepared by House Legislative Services. It constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument. The keyword, one-liner, abstract, and digest do not constitute
part of the law or proof or indicia of legislative intent. [R.S. 1:13(B) and 24:177(E)]
HR 218 Original 2015 Regular Session Alfred Williams
Commends the Baton Rouge General's Regional Burn Center on a tradition of providing
expert burn care for all ages.
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