From Cinders To Butterflies

Dr. Fratianne is described as a team leader, treating patients of all ages with burns up to 95 percent of their bodies. The goal of his treatment is to provide physical, emotional and spiritual rehabilitation, and to watch patients leave the unit with a renewed will to thrive.

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 are able to 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 in spite of their scars; are happier and live more fulfilling lives than they would have if they never had been burned." The Burn Center is decorated with many images of butterflies, a creature that must entomb itself into 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 aim of our unit is to turn burn victims into burn survivors. Stated in another way, From Cinders to Butterflies.