11 Dec 2019

Australian skin donated to help White Island burns victims

From Checkpoint, 5:22 pm on 11 December 2019

An urgent call has been put out to international skin banks to help treat the dozens of people burned in Monday's eruption at Whakaari White Island.

There are still 25 people in critical conditions after the disaster, most of those are understood to have burns to more than 30 percent of their body.

Some have received lifesaving skin grafts, but New Zealand's own stores of skin tissues are running low.

Lisa Owen talks to Stefan Poniatowski - head of the Donor Tissue Bank of Victoria - about how they are helping New Zealand hospitals.