The Statistics on Number of Burn Injuries
In the United States:
- Approximately 2.4 million burns are reported every year.
- Hospitals treat about 650,000 burn injuries.
- Seventy-five thousand patients get hospitalized.
- Of those burn victims hospitalized, 20,000 have significant damages involving at least 25% of their total body area.
- Between 8,000 and 12,000 patients with burn injuries die.
- Approximately one million will incur significant or permanent disabilities due to burning injury (Journal of Burn Care & Rehabilitation, May/June 1992)
- Most of these statistics are based on the reports received from the hospitals.
- Thousands of unreported cases remain absent from the official statistics.
Unreported burns from negligence can be things like:
- Sunburns
- Scalds from caustic liquids
- Match and lighter burn injuries causing disfigurement
- Curling iron burns
- Burns from coffee, tea
- Clothing irons and others
- Construction accident chemical burn.
Children sometimes get admitted to hospitals for these various types of burn injuries and related wounds.
Blindness is another common problem when facial burns are in question. Even if you can survive the burn injuries, they can leave unsightly scars on your face and other parts of the body.
Facial burns will typically require multiple cosmetic surgeries, but sometimes plastic surgery treatments will not be suitable if you receive a severe burn.
You lose your self-concept and confidence. Your personal and social life is directly affected. Your friends could also start to behave abnormally towards you if the burns have caused your facial features to become distorted. Your love life is always at stake after suffering a severe burn to your groin or facial disfigurement from burned or melted skin.
A house fire or car fire is usually what we think of when we visualize burn injury claims. Burn injuries are often suffered in the kitchen, with the bathroom tub also causing many burn injuries. But burn injuries can be caused by chemical burns from common household items. Burn injuries are nearly as common as car accidents annually. Below we will cover the differences between a first degree, second degree burn, and third degree burn.
What Are The Different Types And Causes Of Burn Injuries?
Burn injuries have many causes and categories based on the source and severity of the burn. Each classification identifies the extent to which the negligent defendant burned a person’s body, class three being most severe, often involving damage to nerve endings.
Burn injury classifications are:
- 1st-degree burns
- 2nd-degree burns
- 3rd-degree burns.
First Degree Burns
At-home treatment for first-degree burns is usually effective.
Second Degree Burns
Both the top layer of skin and the layer beneath are susceptible to second-degree burns. They’re more severe and may necessitate medical treatment. Second-degree burns often produce blisters and can leave scars.
Third Degree Burns
The deepest layers of skin and tissue are damaged when these burns occur. Third-degree burns can cause nerve damage, necessitating skin grafts in some cases. Although third-degree burns are the most serious type, this does not imply that they are always permanent. But these burns are far difficult to heal.
All people suffering burns will be exposed to differing danger levels, with significant burns spreading throughout the body. Some victims’ burns are so severe that the flesh on the bones will be burned off, eaten away by flames, showing the bone through the wound.
Causes of Most Burns
Hospital burn centers have provided a lot of data about the causes and treatment of burn injuries.
The different causes of Southern California burn injuries include the following:
- Burns due to explosions: Explosions in vehicles or other toxic waste of factories or within the factory equipment
- Electrical burns: Burns caused by faultily built products
- Thermal burns: Direct exposure to heat or objects that are extremely hot to cause burns
- Chemical burns: Caused by chemicals present in factories and homes
- Scalds: This happens when burn injury victims come in contact with scalding liquid, such as super hot water.
Whatever the type of burn is and regardless of its intensity, you are always encouraged to contact a reliable firm like Ehline Law to get the representation you need to be compensated for the damage. Our best Los Angeles burn injury attorney is standing by for your call.
The financial responsibility for your burn injuries can be on different entities, depending on your scenario.
Our legal team would make an insurance claim against the management or administration, or:
- Construction companies and contractors are responsible for exposing people and workers to faulty or exposed electrical wiring and temporary powerlines.
- Factories expose their workers to caustic chemicals causing thermal, skin, and lung burns (Ex: Management fails to provide you with proper protective equipment like a respirator or chemical suit).
- Government agencies of states, counties, and cities, including their maintenance workers exposing the public to dangerous electrical lines, power conductors, and other innate dangers causing burns and scalds.
- Product manufacturers may be sued for their role in introducing poorly designed burn injury-causing products without warning consumers about their burn injury risk propensities.
- Landlords and managers responsible for allowing boiling water into the premises’ water taps.
Our serious injury attorneys may need to file lawsuits against various defendants jointly and severally, depending on the role they played and the injuries caused to our clients.
