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Fire Prevention Week is Coming

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Fire Prevention Week begins on October 9th and ends on October 15th. Knowing how to prevent fires is one of the best ways to avoid a severe and debilitating burn injury. However, it is equally important to understand how to become alerted to a fire before it causes harm.

Fire Prevention

You can help prevent fires at home by:

  • Watching stoves when they are in use
  • Keeping flammables away from portable heaters
  • Updating your wiring (particularly if you have aluminum wiring)
  • Using a fire screen or closing the glass on your fireplace
  • Smoking outside, on concrete or dirt

These steps can help prevent a fire from starting but won’t necessarily protect you when a fire starts in your home. Having an escape plan and practicing it with your family is an excellent way to know how to react in these unfortunate situations.

Smoke Alarms

One of the easiest ways to avoid injury in the case of a fire is being alerted to the fire before it has a chance to harm you. Hardwired smoke alarms are the best way to do this in your home. However, relying on hardwiring alone is not entirely safe. Fires often impact wiring and can disable smoke alarms that do not have a battery backup. Therefore, check the batteries in your smoke alarms every month.

Smoke alarms should be installed:

  • Inside Each Bedroom
  • Outside of All Sleeping Areas
  • On Every Level of the Home
  • In All Stairways
  • In the Basement
  • In the Garage
  • In the Attic

It is a good idea to install carbon monoxide detectors in sleeping areas and on every level of the home as well. These may need to be installed lower on the wall in areas with appliances that use gas, such as water heaters. Natural gas is lighter than air and will rise, but propane will settle near the ground. Choose the best option based on the type of appliances and gas in your home uses.

Combination smoke/carbon monoxide detectors can be hardwired for optimal effect. Do your research, and don’t cut costs. Not all of these devices are similarly effective. If you rent, insist that your landlord install the safest and most effective models available.

What to do When You’re Injured

If you or a loved one suffers an injury in a fire and suspect factors beyond your control caused it, you may be entitled to compensation. If you are a renter and your injury was related to faulty, inadequate, or missing equipment, you may also be entitled to seek compensation. The best way to learn is through a one-on-one consultation with a qualified personal injury attorney.

Have you been hurt? Use the lawyer locator on this page to find an established and experienced burn injury attorney in your area right away.

The Dark Side Of 4th of July Celebrations: Fireworks Injuries

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Celebrating the 4th of July with fireworks is a beloved American tradition. Unfortunately, too many fireworks users do not handle them safely. Intoxication, lack of understanding of how to use them properly, and failure to supervise children and guests are among the many causes of fireworks accidents. Fireworks can go off in the hand of the users, they are sometimes dropped on or thrown at others, either intentionally or unintentionally, and a dangerous setup can lead to the unintentional ignition of an entire box of fireworks. Fireworks accidents can lead to house fires, wildfires and more. If you have suffered serious burns as a result of a fireworks accident please talk to an experienced injury attorney today.

Fireworks Injury Liability

Liability for injuries, death, and property damage caused by fireworks accidents typically depends on the cause of the accident. It can include negligent users of fireworks including individuals or the companies, organizations, and other entities holding large displays whether a professional pyrotechnics company, a municipality, or another type of organization. Adults who allow children to use fireworks may be held liable as can those who fail to properly supervise children or guests at home or at private gatherings.

Manufacturers and sellers of defective fireworks can also be held liable for the injuries their products cause, whether due to malfunction or due to inadequate warning labels and instructions.

It is worth noting that the majority of fireworks injuries are caused by legal fireworks.

Sparklers

Sparklers, which are often mistaken as safe and appropriate for use by children, are responsible for nearly one-third of all fireworks injuries. Because they are not explosive, too may people underestimate the damage they can cause. Sparklers burn at temperatures up to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. They can cause severe burns on their own and often ignite clothing and hair of the holder or those near them, causing burns all over the body. Sparklers can be dropped, igniting other objects and other fireworks.

If you have suffered serious burns or lost someone you love as a result of a fireworks accident, you may be able to recover substantial compensation for your losses, including pain and suffering. Please search our directory for an experienced burn injury attorney in your state.

Consequences of Serious Burn Injuries and Why It’s Important to Consult an Attorney

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Man in Hospital After Suffering from Burn Injuries

If you’ve been burned at work or have suffered a burn injury due to someone else’s negligence or wrongdoing, you will need to consult a personal injury attorney.

Burns are often very serious injuries and may carry lifelong effects; your life following a burn injury may never be the same. If you’ve been burned due to someone else’s negligence or due to unsafe equipment at work, you’re entitled to compensation for your injury and the aftermath of that injury. Being injured on the job or in the workplace means you’ll likely have what’s called a Workers’ Compensation case in which you’ll need an experienced Workers’ Comp lawyer, but if you’ve been burned someplace other than work, you will need to consult a skilled personal injury lawyer who handles complex cases dealing with burn injuries.

Serious Burn Injuries

A burn injury most often damages layers of skin, but deeper burn injuries may damage tissue (including fat and muscle) or even bone. These are the most common ways that burns occur according to an article on MedlinePlus:

  • Coming in contact with fire or a flame
  • Coming into contact with a flash from the heat of an explosive blast
  • Being scalded with hot liquids or hot steam
  • Coming into contact with hot grease
  • Prolonged contact with something hot
  • By electricity passing through the body and heating the skin and underlying tissue
  • Coming into contact with chemicals such as acid

Medical professionals measure the severity of a burn in terms of “degrees”:

First degree burns are the mildest type of burn and are also referred to as “superficial burns.” These burns damage only the epidermis, which is the first layer of skin, and they usually don’t get infected or leave a permanent scar. The skin may get red but won’t break and usually heals within a very short amount of time (3-5 days).

Second degree burns are also called “partial thickness burns.” This type of burn damages the epidermis and the dermis, which is the second layer of skin. Second degree burns are painful, and the burned area can swell and appear red with blisters. With second degree burns, the damaged skin will grow back unless it becomes infected.

Third degree burns are also called “full thickness burns.” This type of burn goes through the epidermis and dermis and affects deeper tissues which may also be damaged or completely destroyed. With third degree burns, the area may appear charred and may be black, white, or deep red in color, and the skin is often numb to light touch. Skin grafting may be necessary with serious burns such as these.

Fourth degree and deeper burns destroy the skin, fat, muscle, and even bone.

More Information About Serious Burns

The size of the burn is measured using the term “total body surface area” (TBSA), and a percentage is used to indicate the amount of the body that is burned. To estimate burn size, medical professionals use a formula that considers the age of the injured person and a diagram called the Rule of Nines. When someone says that the burns cover 50% of the victim’s body, that number is not simply an estimate, it is arrived at using the TBSA formula.

Medical professionals will also consider many factors to determine the severity of a burn:

  • Depth of the burn (the “degree”)
  • Size of the skin that’s burned (using a percentage)
  • Age of the injured person
  • Location of the burn
  • How much inhalation of smoke or toxins occurred
  • Type of burn
  • Other injuries like bone fractures
  • Other health issues like heart disease

There are many options for treatment and rehabilitation following a serious burn injury that you and your medical team will discuss:

  • Burn centers provide intensive physical and occupational therapy
  • An inpatient rehabilitation facility is a specially designed medical rehabilitation facility where patients full-time after discharge from the burn center. 
  • A skilled nursing facility is where patients may go after they leave the burn center; patients typically live in these facilities and receive medical and nursing care as they recover. 
  • An outpatient rehabilitation center is a medical facility that provides physical and occupational therapy services to people living and recovering at home.

Burns are serious injuries that may take weeks, months, or years to heal from as these injuries don’t only harm the skin, but the muscles, blood vessels, nerves, and bone. Additional consequences of severe burns may include:

  • Scars and disfigurement
  • Extensive emotional and psychological damage
  • Infection
  • Adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) (lungs fail to the burn injury)

When burn injury results from the irresponsible or harmful behavior of a person or entity, the victim deserves compensation for cost of medical treatment, loss of income, and physical, emotional, and psychological damage. Your personal injury attorney will work hard to get you any compensation you deserve following your burn.

Burn Injuries: Rehabilitation

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Rehabilitation

Burn injury rehabilitation is crucial to maximizing quality of life and independence after severe burns. It begins when a burn patient is admitted to the hospital or burn center and can last a lifetime. In the early stages, while the injuries are still acute, the goal of rehabilitation is to minimize lost range of motion. Effective rehabilitation can reduce the need for reconstructive surgery following severe burns. Typically, an entire team is involved in burn injury rehabilitation and can include a doctor, physical therapist, occupational therapist, psychiatrist or psychologist and a social worker.

Burn Injury Rehabilitation Addresses the Whole Person

Burn injury rehabilitation includes physical therapy to preserve and restore range of motion, occupational therapy to help you get back to preforming the normal daily activities of life, and psychological care to help you overcome the psychological and emotional hurdles that severe burns can present. In the early stages, education is a large part of rehabilitation and includes the whole family.

Physical Therapy

Physical therapy focuses largely on maintaining and restoring range of motion. Burn scars can turn into contractures, as the skin tightens, causing pain and making it difficult to move. Physical therapy includes exercises to stretch the skin as it heals, and massage. Therapy while the skin is healing is much more effective than trying to stretch the scars once they have fully formed.

Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy teaches you how to perform daily activities again, so you can be as independent as possible. It can start with very basic stuff, like feeding yourself and combing your hair. Over time, it can include tasks to help you get back to work and earning a living.

Psychological Therapy

Severe burns can have devastating psychological effects. Burn injury victims may suffer PTSD as a result of the initial event that caused the burns and the trauma of burn treatment. the disfigurement caused by severe burns can cause burn injury patients to withdraw from society, friends and family and cause severe depression and anxiety.

Rehabilitation is crucial to successful recovery from burn injuries. To learn more about burn injuries and your legal rights, please talk to an experienced burn injury attorney in your area today.

Burn Injuries: Getting Help

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Burn Injury Danger

Severe burns are some of the most painful and life-changing injuries you can suffer in an accident. The consequences are both physical and psychological. And, the financial devastation doesn’t end with the medical bills.

Burn injuries can happen in the home, on the job, and in car accidents. They can also be caused by chemicals and defective products. When someone else’s negligence or a defective product caused your injuries, an experienced burn injury attorney can help you recover compensation to pay for your medical expenses, lost income and your personal suffering.

Burn Injury Treatment

Severe burns are life-threatening and should be treated in a burn center or burn unit whenever possible. Treatment is expensive and painful. After the initial dangers have passed, you may require extensive treatments and ongoing medical care and physical therapy. Even with the best medical care, you may have severe impairment and disfigurement.

Consequences of Burn Injuries

Burn injuries can change your life forever. Consequences of burn injuries can include:

  • Skin grafts
  • Multiple surgeries
  • Amputations
  • Ongoing physical therapy to regain mobility and range of motion
  • Permanent physical impairment, even with physical therapy
  • Loss of mobility
  • Nerve damage
  • Loss of use of the affected area
  • Organ damage
  • Respiratory damage
  • Severe disfigurement
  • Chronic physical pain
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Learn more about burn injuries can haw an experienced burn in jury attorney can help by viewing this slideshow.

If you or someone you love has suffered severe burns as a result of someone else’s negligence or a defective product, please do not wait until it’s too late to get the help you need. Talk to an experienced burn injury attorney today.