Top Five Causes Of Burn Injuries

Every year, severe burn injuries affect hundreds of thousands of Americans. These injuries usually require extensive, and costly, treatment at specialty burn centers. Even after doctors, physical therapists, and other professionals finish their work, the physical and emotional scars often remain.

Largely because of these scars, a Tampa burn injury attorney might be able to obtain substantial compensation for these victims. This compensation usually includes money for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering. Fair compensation is typically available if negligence, or a lack of care, substantially caused the burn injury.

Radiation

Certain medical procedures and medical tests could cause serious radiation burns. Therefore, doctors have a very high duty of care in these situations.

Most cancer patients receive radiation treatments which shrink their tumors, along with chemotherapy drugs that kill cancer cells and surgery to remove tumors. Today’s radiation treatments are much more targeted than the ones used in the 1990s. Therefore, some doctors increase the dose without considering the patient’s ability to tolerate higher radiation levels.

These kinds of radiation treatments are inherently risky. Such cancer treatments always cause hair loss and skin irritation, making these victims even more vulnerable to injury.

Additionally, many X-ray and other diagnostic machines bombard patients with radiation. Strict standards are in place regarding the radiation dose as well as protective equipment, such as lead vests, that patients must wear. Doctors cannot take shortcuts during these proceedings, and they cannot skip necessary tests because a patient is less than cooperative.

Inhalation

Unlike temperature burns, these injuries are usually invisible. However, they are no less serious. They usually affect the lungs. Some common symptoms of inhalation burns include:

• Unconsciousness,
• Soot around the nostrils or mouth,
• Trouble breathing,
• Face/neck burns, and
• Singed hair.

These burns often cause scar tissue to build up in the lungs. This condition, which is known as constrictive bronchiolitis or popcorn lung, is incurable and mostly untreatable. Usually, the best that doctors can do is slow the disease’s progress. Even then, the most effective treatment is usually a risky lung transplant operation.

Electrical

These types of burns are usually the most serious ones. Since the body naturally resists electrical blasts, the heat builds up. This heat is usually hotter than the sun.

Much like inhalation burns, electrical burns are normally invisible. The electricity burns internal organs, such as the brain. However, these incidents often cause contact burns as well, especially if victims touch live wires or children put wires or plugs in their mouths.

The force of an arc blast often throws victims away from the point of contact. That could be a good thing, because it reduces the severity of a burn. It could also be a bad thing, because this extreme force usually causes a serious fall which, in many cases, is worse than the burn.

Thermal

These are the most common kinds of burn injuries. Fires cause about half of them, and scalding causes most of the rest of them. Flash burns, which are caused by explosions, are a subset of thermal burns. Simply being close to an explosion could cause a serious burn.

Temperatures as low as 115 degrees, which is basically a lukewarm cup of coffee, could cause serious burns. Temperature is the key factor when it comes to injury severity. Third-degree burns, which affect the lower skin level, always require painful and expensive skin grafts.

Chemical

Many household cleaners could cause chemical burns. Potent industrial solvents are even more of a hazard. Furthermore, a significant number of chemical burns happen in swimming pools. High chlorine levels could easily cause chemical burns.

In many cases, these burns are not particularly painful. Therefore, the resulting injuries are much worse, since no pain impulse prompts the victim to cease contact with the substance causing the burn.

Reach Out to a Tough Hillsborough County Lawyer

Injury victims are usually entitled to significant compensation. For a free consultation with an experienced personal injury attorney in Tampa, contact Mark H. Wright, PLLC. We do not charge upfront legal fees in these situations.

Resource:

ameriburn.org/who-we-are/media/burn-incidence-fact-sheet/