Florida Woman Left With Horrific Burns After Face Catches Fire During Surgery

HOLT, Ala. – A woman was recovering in a burns unit in Alabama on Thursday after her face caught fire during routine surgery.

Morther-of-three Kim Grice, from Holt, Fla., was having cysts removed from her head at a medical center in Crestview, Fla., when the blaze suddenly erupted, leaving her with horrific burns to her face and neck, the Crestview News Bulletin reported.

The 29-year-old, who was unconscious during the incident, was immediately flown to the hospital in Alabama on Tuesday after local firefighters responded to the "flash fire."

It was not clear what caused the flames.

Ann Grice, Kim's mother, told the Destin Log, "Kim said to me, 'They woke me up and everyone around me was hysterical. I don't know what happened to me.'"

"The doctors and the hospital are not telling us what happened," Grice's uncle Ted Grice said. "They said they had never seen anything like it before and they are terribly sorry that it happened."

A statement from the North Okaloosa Medical Center said, "The hospital deeply regrets today's event in which a patient sustained burns during a procedure in our ambulatory surgery center. The staff took immediate steps to respond, including moving the patient to the hospital's emergency department."

"We are conducting a thorough review to fully understand what happened in a deliberate effort to prevent such an event from occurring again," it added.