Thank the hospital

– You are all my family. I will never forget you, said the 28-year-old to the staff at the burns department at Haukeland University Hospital.

Everyone wept with joy when 28-year-old Kinga could finally be discharged from hospital this week, after almost 11 months of demanding and painful treatment.

Life-threatening injuries

Last March, Polish Kinga Kleinschmidt suffered third-degree burns on 85 percent of her body in a work accident at a pharmaceutical factory in Iceland.

Since the country does not have its own specialist department for burns, she was flown to the national burns department in Bergen.

– 10-15 years ago, she probably wouldn’t have survived with those injuries, says head of department Ragnvald Ljones Brekke.

In recent weeks, TV 2 has been able to follow Kinga’s treatment and training. You can read about it here.

After 11 grueling months of treatment, this week she was finally allowed to go home to her family in Iceland.

– Kinga has been fantastic to work with. It has been a long journey, but she has had an inner drive that has gotten her to where she is today, says physiotherapist Cathrine Sivertsen.

She has worked with Kinga throughout, and highlights the interdisciplinary collaboration with, among other things, surgeons, anesthetists and nurses.

– Without everyone working together, we cannot get the patients through the treatment, says Sivertsen.

The skin becomes too “small”

As an example, she describes how Kinga’s joints were stimulated from day one, when she was in a coma, so that they would not stiffen.

– When the skin starts to heal, it’s like putting on too small a size of skin. Then it is important to stretch it out to preserve mobility, says the physiotherapist.

Through many and long treatments, she herself has developed a close bond with the 28-year-old.

– There have been many tears, but I told you right from the start that it would be fine, Cathrine Sivertsen says to Kinga when they say goodbye at the hospital.

– You have promised me that you will be the grandmother of my children in the future, Kinga replies and laughs.

On the ward, the staff are queuing up to hug her when she now disappears from the hospital where she has lived for most of the past year.

Home for mother’s birthday

Now she is traveling back to Iceland, together with a Norwegian nurse who will show the staff at the hospital in Reykjavik how the burn injuries should be treated further.

Within a few weeks, the plan is for her to move home with her mother and sister, who also live in Iceland.

– My mother has a birthday soon. Coming home will be my birthday present to her, says Kinga Kleinschmidt before she waves and goes through security at the airport.