Burn Casts

John Yates, a security manager at the Pentagon, was watching coverage of the attacks at the World Trade Center when hijacked Flight 77 hit his building. Disoriented from the impact, Yates began crawling on the floor to find an exit. The intense heat coming off carpeting and filing cabinets burned Yates as he escaped. Ultimately, Yates sustained severe burns on more than a third of his body, with the most intense of these injuries to his hands. After two skin graft operations, Yates wore compression gloves and sleeves for one year to help prevent scarring. Though the skin on his hands has healed, Yates’s hands have a limited range of movement.

These hand casts were worn at night to stretch the tendons in Yate's fingers in order to re-attain full hand dexterity. They were worn for about 6 months.