The Healer : Richard Grossman has seen the pain caused by burns. Today in Sherman Oaks he heads the largest private unit in the nation devoted to such victims.

In the late 1950s, Richard Grossman was a young doctor at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He was the resident in charge of the emergency room when a fire broke out at a nearby Catholic school one winter day.

“I had to count 98 dead children, all suffocated or burned to death. The catastrophe indelibly stayed in my mind,” he says.

Today, Grossman, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, is medical director of the burn center at Sherman Oaks Hospital and Health Center. He created the center in 1970, when he persuaded hospital officials to devote two beds to patients with burns. Since then, the unit has grown to become the largest private burn unit in the country, with 10 intensive care beds, 20 intermediate beds, two operating rooms, an outpatient burn clinic and a rooftop heliport.

About 375 burn victims are treated at the center every year. One-third of them are children--like Abdullah, a severely burned 12-year-old from Saudi Arabia. Grossman is rebuilding the boy’s mouth, nose and ears, which were mutilated in a fire.

“This is how I can give so much happiness. This is what makes me feel like a doctor,” Grossman said as he hugged the boy.

Physicians from all over the world trek to the center to learn the latest in burn care, and patients travel to Sherman Oaks from throughout the country and overseas for reconstruction surgery. Every year, 600 people use the center’s outpatient clinic.

Patients need not have massive burns covering their bodies to benefit from specialized burn treatment, according to registered nurse Laura Finlayson, the center’s director of education.

“Every burn deserves special care,” she said. “Anyone who has burns over 10% of their body should come to a burn center. Burn patients require too much physical and psychological care to be in a regular intensive care unit.”

The center boasts high-tech services and equipment, including decompression chambers that administer pure oxygen to help treat smoke inhalation and help wounds heal quickly. Wounds are cleansed and dressings changed in a hydrotherapy room, instead of a traditional whirlpool.

Because so much of a patient’s energy is expended fighting off burn injuries, patients are continuously tube-fed calorie-dense nutrients. They wear pressure garments to minimize scarring, and they lie on inflatable beds that adjust to their weight and size to relieve pressure on wounds.

Despite liberal doses of painkillers, burns are among the most excruciating of injuries. Helping patients deal with the suffering is one of the center’s greatest challenges.

Debe Hale knows how much it hurts. The 37-year-old art director of the new CBS comedy “Love and War” was making spaghetti in her Sherman Oaks home when the pot slipped out of her hand and boiling water poured over her legs and feet.

“This is the worst pain I have ever been through,” she said from her hospital room filled with balloons and covered with Polaroid snapshots of visitors. “This is more painful than having a baby.”

Dr. Clinton Tempereau, chief of psychiatric services at the center, says the pain usually does not cause long-term psychological damage. “While excruciating at the time it is going on, when it’s over, it’s over,” he said.

According to Tempereau, more serious are the feelings of helplessness and loss of control, which often lead to flashbacks and nightmares years later.

“Through intensive daily therapy, we help the person control their memories, rather than the memories controlling them, so by the time the person gets out of the hospital, it is just an old war story,” he said.

Despite the trauma and tragedy of burns, the atmosphere at the center is surprisingly comfortable, according to Jeanette Williams. Her 2-year-old granddaughter, Kristen, was severely burned from her bellybutton to her toes. A day-care worker has been charged with holding the girl in a tub of scalding water.

“Being in this hospital is like being at a family member’s home,” Williams said. “We were here all hours of the day and night, and no one ever told us visiting hours were over.”

During the 73 days Kristen was hospitalized, Williams and her husband, Jimmie, stayed rent-free in a nearby apartment that the burn center maintains for families of patients.

Hospital staff members often bond to their youngest patients. When Kristen sang “Itsy Bitsy Spider” at her farewell party, dozens of nurses gloated like proud parents and stood in line for a goodby kiss.

Some children are so badly mutilated, they are afraid to go out in public after they are discharged. To help ease the transition, nurses take children shopping, to the movies or out to lunch. Sometimes they treat children to a trip to Disneyland, take them home for an evening or buy them clothes.

In one case, a nurse even adopted a tiny burn victim whose mother had purposely set the house on fire.

“This kind of nursing really saps you because flame can do such damage, and the carnage is so sad,” said Nursing Director Diana Parker, the daughter of a firefighter.

“But it is also incredibly rewarding. We have such a close relationship with our patients, they come back months and years later and say ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’ ”

Burn Prevention

Every year more than 2 million Americans are hospitalized for burns. Burns kill 12,000 people in the United States each year and are the second leading cause of accidental death among children.

What you can do to prevent burns:

* Turn water heater settings down to 120 degrees.

* Check bath water before placing a child in a tub.

* Do not drink hot coffee while holding a baby.

* Turn pot handles away from the edge of the stove.

* Lift pot lids so that steam rises away from your face.

* Use flame-retardant sleep wear for children.

* Keep matches and lighters out of a child’s reach.

* Install smoke detectors on every level of your home, especially outside bedrooms. Test them monthly and change batteries at least once a year.

* Sleep with bedroom doors closed.

* Buy fire extinguishers and learn how to use them.

* If your clothing catches fire, stop, drop and roll.

* Always wear seat belts.

If you have a minor burn:

* Apply cold water for 15 minutes.

* Leave blisters intact.

* Protect the area from heat, sun and dirt.

* Wash wound gently with a mild soap and water.

* Do not apply butter or grease.

* Call a physician or go to the nearest emergency facility in case of redness, drainage, swelling, fever, or for all burns on a child under 2 years old.

For more information, call the Sherman Oaks Burn Center, (818) 907-4580. Registered nurse Laura Finlayson conducts free workshops for businesses, schools and organizations on burn prevention and first aid for burn injuries. Call (818) 907-4583.