Maria Ines Candido da Silva, 36, worked as a waitress in the Casa Velha restaurant in Russas, located in north-east Brazil. During a day at work, she got caught in the middle of a gas cooker canister explosion.
Second degree burns covered her arms, neck, and part of her face.
“The explosion left me with horrific injuries,” she said. “I was in absolute agony and desperate for anything to ease my suffering.”
When she was admitted to the hospital, her doctors suggested not ointment-based treatment, but another method that she wasn’t expecting at all: fish skin, or more precisely, tilapia skin.
“I found the idea really strange,” Ines remembered. “But I jumped at the chance because they said it would be far less painful than the normal treatment and easier to manage.”
What doctors did for Ines was clean her burns, then apply fish skin directly to the open wound for 11 days before removing the skin with petroleum jelly, and then repeating the process with fresh fish skin.
Ines’ treatment lasted for 20 days, during which her fish skin treatment was changed several times. Each time it was reapplied, it looked as if the skin was actually a part of her body. “I felt like I was in a sci-fi-movie when the tilapia fish skin was being put on,” Ines said.
“At first the fish skin felt really cold but within minutes of it being laid on, I didn’t feel any more pain and it felt cool and comforting.”
According to the doctors, tilapia skin is used because the fish is common, but also because it’s disease-resistant. The skin also contains high amounts of collagen type one, which helps keep it damp and optimal for repairing wounds – like burns.
"The skin triggers healing in roughly the same amount of time as the topical creams that we currently use in the conventional treatment,” explained Dr. Edmar Maciel.
“But the benefits of this alternative technique include reducing the trauma and pain suffered by patients because their dressing does not have to be changed daily. With the traditional treatment, it does.”
Although Ines’ skin is still raw and pink, doctors have deemed her completely recovered. She’s thrilled that she took the chance to try this unconventional treatment and “would recommend [this fish skin treatment] to anyone who has suffered like [her].”
