Thanks, Catherine for translating this encouraging news!

It's the least I can do...

Thank you for this encouraging news, Catherine.

[added comment: I've submitted this post to several other dance forums, as it is the most current and most positive news so far]

I'm glad to hear encouraging news - but I'm not sure the quotes are 100% accurate. If there are 3rd degree burns, there will be some scarring. When that many layers of skin are burned, they don't just regrow as before. Especially in one month, plastic surgery or no plastic surgery. I do hope that the surgeons are able to do as much as possible to minimize scarring, and that they can preserve as much vision as possible.

Plus, I don't think it's viral infections that are the only or main concern, but bacterial infections. But that may be a bit translation issue or reporting issue.

Cassandra - that's a glaring error, but headlines and formatting are almost always done by someone other than the person who writes the body of the article. So it's not fair to blame the writer. Trust me - I've published many papers in journals and I have to be very careful because the formatting/copy editors will often introduce errors because they have no clue about the subject matter (and sometimes are not even native english speakers).

Kate, I do have to agree that the medical angle puzzles me. There's a contradiction between saying 3rd degree burns, which go through all layers of skin and tissue beneath the skin, to the bone eating away at all tissue present, in my limited understanding* -- and then to mention that via plastic surgery he'd look the same as before. I pray to God that is true, but medically speaking something doesn't gel here, and that has struck me from the very start. I am surprised none of the news articles hop on this point either. I am hoping the fact that (per another article) they gave him no opiates or pain killers (which would be required for 3rd degree burns, no?) means the burns perhaps are not that deep, not that bad? Although i also read that second degree are more painful -- as soon as you char away the nerves, there is only numbness, no pain. So maybe that would explain the lack of painkillers but then in that case, how can plastic surgery help, on what would they reconstruct the layers?

*if you can stomach it, a google search for "3rd degree burns" will show you images of the damage they do.

Edited to add that this article http://vmdaily.ru/news/pravij-glaz-sergeya-filina-vidit-huzhe-chem-levij1358763107.html dated Jan 21st at 4p.m., states that Yuri Tyurnikov, the director of the Hospital #36 Burn Center, said that Filin has burns of "four (4) percent of his body of the first, second and third degree. By the decision of the consilium, tomorrow we will remove the most deeply damaged tissues and possibly close the wound damage/defect." IF that is true, 4 percent is not much and is very good news.

Additionally, on Sunday at a nearby Moscow church, Filin's mother along with Semyon Chudin and others placed candles and a special prayer was said. It is written out at length in this article (with a photo) :
http://vmdaily.ru/news/k-molebnu-za-zdravie-sergeya-filina-spetsialno-napisali-molitvu1358767259.html

Third degree burns are painless - the nerve endings are gone. It's the 2nd (and 1st) degree burns around the edges that hurt like h*ll. So there's usually some pain because not all the burns will be 3rd degree. And it's often not the initial injury, but the pain of debridement/treatment that requires serious painkillers. Think about how badly a blister hurts when air hits it or you pull a bandaid off of it.

It sounds like the acid - thankfully - was confined to a fairly small area. To put it into perspective, the whole head is considered about 9%, so the front of the head would be 4.5%. So 4% it sounds like it's a good part of his face, and maybe parts of neck & shoulder.

I suspect the surgery is a combination of debridement and skin grafts - remove dead tissue, and either replace it with grafts or get it prepped to encourage new growth. I would think the "closure' means grafts - you don't generally pull skin to cover a defect unless it's baggy (for lack of a better word) because it would cause distortion. And I don't think faces tend to have a whole lot extra - unlike, ahem, other part of the human anatomy.

Whether it's the usual loss-in-translation between what the professional (doctors here) said and the press reported, or a difference in approach, it's intriguing. I'd think doctors here would be fairly conservative when making a statement - better for the result to be more positive than predicted, than to predict and not have it turn out so well. That said, I suspect we'd not get as many details because of strict medical privacy laws here.

The Bolshoi's Principal Galina Stepanenko will do the Artistic Director's job while Sergei Filin is receiving treatment and rehabilitation.

http://izvestia.ru/news/543401#ixzz2IhgS4mV8

Rather surprising news as I would have thought the deputy director, Ruslan Pronin, would have taken over. Nevertheless I am very happy for Stepanenko, if I remember rightly she was the last major pupil (along with Tsiskaridze) of Marina Semenova. Stepanenko, like her teacher in fact, was a lady of formidable technique when technique meant more than exposing your crotch to the audience.

Ruslan Pronin turned down the offer considering it as too overwhelming for him.
Sergei Filin himself proposed Galina for the job. They are very good friends. He will definitely be guiding and helping her.

The doctors today are working on Sergei's skin and tomorrow will do the second operation on his eyes. The right eye was more affected because the attack happened from the right side.
Good luck and fingers crossed.

Soutenu,
thanks for posting what was for us an overnight update with the new news of Galina's appointment. Interesting that both Ruslan Pronin and Alexander Vetrov already turned down the interim AD position, and that Zakharova, they say, is no longer responding to the press. I hope Galina will be safe.

Kate, I'd venture to say in the US the doctors would say zero -- because malpractice occurs here at the blink of an eye for the smallest things sometimes.

In any case - thanks for that detail. If he meant 4% of the total body and the head is considered 9% then you're right -- the burn area is extensive. I thought that comment was made in the context of the entire body skin coverage area, which would make it very little. Plastic surgery will no doubt be required to prop up the tissues that are now absent due to being eaten away by the acid. The whole thing is horrible.

By the way, another article pointed out that his wife has not left his bedside and that the doctors encouraged him to walk, but that he walks only with her help -- I think partly bc of the difficulty seeing. Also that same article said he WAS on painkillers. Which the doctor had said, well that at least strong opiates had been avoided, but he is on something. I find it beyond amazing that he's continuing to meet with doctors, investigators, press, officials from the theatre and continue his job through all this. Can you imagine the strength of will, energy and courage that entails?

A final note - his younger sons have not visited him yet in the hospital. His wife felt that would be too traumatic and I agree w/her, for now at least.

Touché Cassandra.

"Foibles" deleted.

Catherine wrote:

Exactly.

Hello, Catherine,
I hope you will not mind me asking you to correct in your post, if it is still possible now, the misspelt name of the Bolshoi Ballet company's manager. Otherwise the readers can be confused that it resembles the name of another dancer.
The correct spelling is Ruslan Pronin.

Soutenu - thanks, done. )