MEDICAL ANIMATION TRANSCRIPT: An injury to the skin, such as a cut, scrape, or puncture wound kills nearby cells and damages underlying structures and triggers the complex process of repairing the skin. Wound healing is a three-step process. The inflammatory phase begins immediately upon injury. Blood vessels constrict to reduce blood loss. Then, platelets arrive to plug the leak. The platelet plug initiates the clotting mechanism by facilitating the reactions of plasma proteins called clotting factors, which interact to form a fibrin clot. After the clot forms, the blood vessels vasodilate and become more porous to allow white blood cells to leave the blood vessel and populate at the site of injury. During this process called phagocytosis, white blood cells eat debris and kill bacteria, reducing the risk of infection. The proliferative phase begins two days to three weeks after injury. The first step in the proliferative stage is granulation. Connective tissue cells, called fibrobla...