From Seattle comes news of another patient who has suffered serious facial burns from a surgical fire.

Last week, a man was undergoing a 1-hour procedure to remove a bump from his head at Grays Harbor Community Hospital when his oxygen mask caught fire. He suffered burns to his face and head. The man said he believes the cauterizing tool used in the surgery caused a spark and that, in turn, ignited the oxygen in his oxygen mask. He said doctors have told him it could take more than a year for his burns to heal.

We brought you news of a similar story last week. A 29-year-old mother went into the Crestview Surgery Center in northern Florida to have a cyst removed from her head when a fire broke out during the procedure. She, too, suffered burns over her face and head.

An estimated 550 to 650 surgical fires happen every year in U.S. operating rooms, according to the ECRI Institute, the Plymouth Meeting, Pa.-based healthcare research organization. "They're rare but when they happen, they can be devastating," says Karen Weiss, MD, MPH, program director of the Safe Use Initiative in FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. "And they're preventable if the surgical team works together to reduce the risk of fires."

FDA's Preventing Surgical Fires Initiative is a collaborative effort to increase awareness of the risk of these fires and to encourage surgical personnel to work together to adopt practices that will prevent them from occurring. The initiative partners include associations that represent members of surgical teams, healthcare facilities, and healthcare engineering and patient safety organizations.

Dan O'Connor