Ten New South Wales residents injured in the White Island volcano disaster are now being treated at two Sydney Hospitals, with two more patients arriving at Royal North Shore overnight.
Four patients at Concord Hospital are in a critical condition.
The family of one patient at Concord Hospital have requested privacy.
Two patients at Royal North Shore are in a stable condition, while three patients at Royal North Shore are in a critical condition.
Four patients are at Concord Hospital are in a critical condition, following the Whakaari volcano tragedy. Source: AAP
Meanwhile, Melbourne's Alfred hospital is treating three badly-burnt survivors and has been approached by Australians offering to donate their own skin.
The hospital revealed locals have been offering to donate their own skin to help the victims, who have burns to up to 90 per cent of their bodies.
In New Zealand, the six bodies recovered and airlifted off White Island are now in the care of the coroner.
Bouquets of flowers sit on one of the two tour boats that went to White Island. Source: AAP
The bodies recovered have been taken to Auckland for the post mortem and disaster victim identification process.
Together with Police DVI experts, forensic pathologists, odontologists and the Coroner’s office, the process of identifying victims and releasing bodies to families will continue.
An internationally approved process for disaster management identification (DVI) is being followed.
The process is stringent and will take time.
The lengthy and challenging process has been outlined by New Zealand police on Saturday.
PHASE ONE: SCENE
The victim's body is examined and documented, then taken to the mortuary.
PHASE TWO: MORTUARY
The body is examined in detail by a pathologist, forensic dentist, fingerprint officer and Police DVI team.
Personal effects (such as jewellery, clothing) are photographed, then collected, examined, cleaned, re-photographed and secured.
PHASE THREE: ANTE-MORTEM INFORMATION RETRIEVAL
Police gather information about possible victims, such as descriptions of appearance, clothing, jewellery, photographs; medical and dental records, X-rays; fingerprints, from objects or official records (commonly collected by some overseas agencies); and DNA samples, such as from a hairbrush, toothbrush or blood sample.
PHASE FOUR: RECONCILIATION
Information from post-mortem and ante-mortem phases are brought together to find a match.
At an identification hearing, the coroner is presented evidence of the match by fingerprint, dentistry, DNA and police DVI experts and decides if identification has been established.
Family and/or foreign authorities are advised, then media.
PHASE FIVE: DEBRIEF
People involved in the DVI process keep each other updated throughout all stages.
Support and welfare is made available to staff including stress and grief counsellors, chaplains, Victim Support and police welfare officers.
To treat the severely burned survivors, New Zealand doctors and medical authorities are purchasing almost 1,300 square feet of human skin from the United States.
Surgeons have been operating nonstop on these patients because many of the injuries were worsened by chemicals and gases in the volcanic eruption.
There is not enough human skin in New Zealand for surgeons to treat all of the injuries they are seeing.
with additional reporting from AAP
