Sisters Scarred by Fire, Healed by Love
It came as some surprise to dermatologist Jill Waibel, M.D., that the appointment turned out to be for three identical triplets, not just the young woman who'd left the message. She started by asking how they got their burn scars. "And then all three of them started telling their story—we were all crying," she recalls. "You couldn't not cry. With burn patients, every day they look in the mirror, they think of that fire. It's a daily reminder. People aren't always kind, and the survivors have to explain over and over in their life where that burn came from. It's an extra burden for them to carry around."
February 28, the day of the treatment, was intense, and the girls' emotions were close to the surface. Chandra had undergone dermabrasion two years earlier, which had been painful and had yielded little result. And though this laser treatment promised to possibly lessen their scarring by 80 percent (see "The New Treatment the Triplets Are Trying" below), they would have to wait up to three months to see how much it really helped; Dr. Waibel also warned them they'd probably have to have the procedure several times.
As they had so many other times in their lives, the girls got each other through the day: They laughed at one another's jokes, they held Chandra's hands when she cried, they were in and out of the three treatment rooms checking up on one another constantly. Because they were undergoing, once again, the same experience, each one knew how her sisters felt: nervous, uncomfortable, hopeful, giddy.
Dr. Waibel was touched by how close the girls were. She noticed that when Chandra's boyfriend called during the treatment, she passed the phone around so he could talk to all of the sisters. "If you take care of one, you take care of all of them," Dr. Waibel observed. The triplets have had the procedure a second time, and while their scars have improved somewhat, they will again turn to each other to get through the months of waiting ahead.
Having opened the lockbox of their past, the girls are ready to start the long road to full recovery, both inside and out. "It's still hard to talk about it sometimes," says Jordan. "Sometimes I won't even be expecting it and I'll be emotional. But as the years have gone by, I've been able to deal with it more. We realized we have nothing to be ashamed of. We're proud of who we are."
Susan Dominus writes the Big City column for The New York Times.
The New Treatment the Triplets Are Trying
Burns are particularly intractable scars, and doctors have struggled with the limited treatments available to minimize their visibility. Some therapies, like silicone sheeting and cortisone shots, are aimed at flattening the scar and evening out the collagen; "pulsed dye lasers" may also lighten the red coloring of scars, says Anjali Dahiya, M.D., an assistant professor in dermatology at the NewYork Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center. The Lumenis laser, which Dr. Jill Waibel used on Chandra, Jordan and Trae, is a relatively new treatment option, and works by creating millions of microscopic tunnels in the scarred area to stimulate deep collagen growth and tighten the skin in the hope of more dramatic healing. "It was a little painful on my face, and afterward it looked like a really bad sunburn," says Jordan. "Now the scars are smoother, and we hope we'll see more results in time." Pat Wexler, M.D., a top cosmetic dermatologist in New York, says the treatment could be a real breakthrough: "It allows you to do deeper resurfacing, and it targets not just texture, but pigmentation as well, in one treatment, all with easier recovery and fewer complications." As Dr. Waibel points out, "There are thousands of third-degree-burn patients every year. Hopefully, with this treatment, we can help more of them."
