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by Richard Fratianne (Author)
IN AN ARTICLE IN THE 2001 WINTER ISSUE of the Case Western Reserve University Magazine, titled "Miracles Happen Around Him", Dr. Fratianne is described as a team leader, treating patients of all ages with burns up to 95% of their bodies. The goal of treatment is to provide physical, emotional, and spiritual rehabilitation and to watch patients leave the unit with a renewed will to thrive. He is quoted as saying, "Even though being burned was a terrible experience, patients can use the experience as a positive event in their lives. Perhaps that is what I am most proud of: taking cinders and turning them into survivors who have a more positive self-image despite their scars, who are happier and live more fulfilling lives than they would have if they had never been burned". During his tenure, the Burn Center was decorated with many images of butterflies, a creature that must entomb itself in a cocoon and "die", and eventually, after much struggle, will re-emerge as a much more beautiful creation. Burn victims likewise must "die" because they are never going to look the way they did before their injury. They, too, must struggle throughout the healing process to overcome feelings of fear, anxiety, and despair. The Burn Center aims to turn burn victims into burn survivors. Stated another way, from Cinders to Butterflies.
