A 36-year-old woman who had suffered severe burns has been given fish skin to reduce her injuries in pioneering new treatment. Maria Ines Candido da Silva, 36, worked as a waitress at a restaurant in Russas, north east Brazil.

An explosion from a gas canister at the restaurant she was working at caused severe burns to her arms, neck and some of her face.

Doctors offered her an alternative treatment – to dress her wounds with the skin of a common freshwater fish.

It’s believed to be the first time in medical history that scientists have used the skin of a fish as a plaster to treat wounds.

A team of doctors at the Dr José Frota Institute Burns Unit in Fortaleza, north east Brazil, developed the pioneering treatment.