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'Spray-on skin' offers new hope for burn patients in Louisiana
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BATON ROUGE - Burns are among the most painful injuries a person can endure. However, a relatively new treatment called ReCell ‘Spray-On Skin’ is changing the healing process for patients across Louisiana, offering quicker recovery, less pain, and dramatically improved cosmetic results.
A recent success story shines a light on this innovation right here in Baton Rouge.
At just 19 years old, Amarion Hally was grappling with the overwhelming transition into adulthood. His struggle culminated in a desperate act that left him with severe burns over most of his body and face, along with the need for finger amputations.
"I was basically just turning into a full-fledged adult, responsibilities and everything, and I didn't know how to handle it, so I tried taking my own life, and I used fire and drove into a tree and woke up here," Hally shared from his hospital bed at Baton Rouge General.
Initially, the shock of his appearance was devastating. "It was not me... I thought I would just never have melanin, that my skin would come back, and I pretty much think I did say something like I'm gonna be white forever," he recalled, facing a reflection he didn't recognize.
Hally's healing journey was spearheaded by Baton Rouge General Surgeon Dr. Christina Sharon, who utilized the ReCell system to treat his extensive injuries.
"It basically just adds a lot of super concentrated cells and encourages the patient's own body with those cells to kind of heal on their own," explained Dr. Sharon. "It regrows skin."
Dr. Sharon uses this advanced technology in 95% of her burn cases. The key advantage of ReCell is its ability to reduce or, in some cases, eliminate the need for extensive skin grafting. Historically, treating large burns required harvesting large sheets of healthy skin, a procedure that causes significant pain and scarring at the donor site.
"I can take a tiny little piece... a 2 by 3 centimeter by 4 centimeter—the size of a credit card, I guess—and I'm covering a large portion of the body," Dr. Sharon noted. "I do that in deeper dermal burns as well to avoid having a skin graft."
The recovery period with the ReCell system is not only quicker but significantly less painful. Critically, it also helps patients return to looking more like themselves before the injury.
"Less painful, pigmentation is usually pretty close to the pre-existing burn," Dr. Sharon stated. "I’m finding a lot with ReCell that I’m getting pretty close to what their normal unburned tissue looks like."
For Hally, this near-normal pigmentation was a major turning point.
"The day I went home, I looked in the mirror, and I could see fragments of my old self if I looked hard enough," Hally shared. "I looked [in the mirror]—it was like I was looking at a person through a window. I just stood there. I was like, 'That's me. That's really me I'm looking at.'"
This groundbreaking technology has deep roots in Louisiana. Dr. Jeffrey Carter, a professor of surgery at LSU Health New Orleans, led the development of the ReCell spray-on skin system.
The widespread adoption of the technology is credited with significantly improving burn survival rates in the region. In 2018, the mortality rate from burns in the New Orleans area was about 8%, more than double the national average. Within just two years, Dr. Carter and his team managed to bring that number down to 3.6%.
Seven months after the incident, Amarion Hally is thriving. With the continuous help of mental and physical therapy, he is now channeling his renewed optimism into spreading hope and positivity through TikTok dances and uplifting messages.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, please call or text the Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free and confidential support.
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