CLEVELAND, Ohio — On March 20, 2013, Meeta Shah was dry roasting flatbread at the stovetop in her home in North Royalton when a tiny piece of burning food floated up out of the pan and landed on her cotton shirt. In an instant, the shirt was aflame and her daughter, then 8, watched in terror as Shah tried in vain to put out the fire.
Shah, 42, survived. But like most burn patients, she was left with physical reminders of that night: thick, whorled scars from third-degree burns on her chin, neck, chest and armpits, and large patches of scarred and discolored skin on her legs where doctors took grafts to replace what had burned away.
The scars bothered Shah– they were tight and uncomfortable at times and they reminded her of what had happened — but she was feeling well and had decided to accept her altered appearance. After all, what choice did she have?
Then doctors at MetroHealth Medical Center, where she had spent a month recovering from the burns a year ago, recently gave her another option. It’s a laser treatment called the Lumenis Ultra, which can help improve the appearance, texture and thickness of burn scars, with little pain, even years after an injury.