What You Should Know About Burn Injuries
Burn injuries are among the most catastrophic personal injuries. The medical bills alone in these cases often exceed $1 million. The external physical injuries are just the beginning. These victims usually develop PTSD, a brain injury that’s caused by a stress-induced chemical imbalance in the brain. The symptoms of PTSD, especially depression and hypervigilance, are often debilitating or fatal. These victims also struggle with emotional injuries. Burn injuries cause deep scars that, much like the physical scars, never fully heal.
These matters are legally complex. Due to the amount of money involved, insurance company lawyers typically fight burn injury claims tooth and nail. So, a Carlsbad personal injury lawyer must work very hard to obtain fair compensation in these cases. This compensation usually includes money for economic losses, such as the aforementioned medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering.
Types of Burn Injuries
Several kinds of burn injuries randomly affect people suddenly and without warning. The types vary, but in most cases, the underlying cause (another party’s negligence, or lack of care) is the same.
- Temperature Burns: Most burn injuries are thermal burns. Truck crashes often cause such injuries. Semi-trucks often carry more than 300 gallons of diesel fuel, a chemical that burns at a different temperature than ordinary gasoline. Furthermore, since these victims are often pinned under flaming wreckage, the severity of the injury is worse. More on that below.
- Radiation Burns: Most people have had radiation burns (sunburns). They know how painful and mobility-restricting these injuries can be. Negligence-related radiation burns are much more intense. These burns usually include radiation burns caused by medical negligence, such as an X-ray machine set at the wrong level or a tanning booth that’s mechanically unsound.
- Chemical Burns: Swimming pool cleaning chemicals, like chlorine, are highly toxic and very dangerous. Other chemical burns are work-related, usually because the victim works near an open container of dangerous chemicals. In both cases, the fumes usually sear the ears, nose, and throat, causing injuries which are difficult to diagnose and treat.
- Electrical Burns: Electrocutions are one of the Fatal Four construction injuries. These four injuries (electrocutions, falls, caught between, and struck by) cause over half of the fatal construction accidents in California. Contact with a live electrical wire not only causes severe burns but often also causes falls, due to the arc blast explosion.
Generally, a Carlsbad personal injury lawyer must prove negligence by a preponderance of the evidence (more likely than not).
Special rules apply in defective products and work-related injuries. The manufacturer or employer could be responsible for damages as a matter of law in these cases.
Degree of Injury
Radiation burns are a good example of the degrees of burns, and the different kinds of injuries these burns cause.
A sunburn is a first-degree radiation burn which only affects the outermost layer of skin (epidermis), causing redness, pain, and possibly minor swelling.
Tanning bed-related sunburns are often worse, since the radiation source is so much closer to the skin. These burns (second-degree burns) damage both the epidermis and dermis, causing blisters, pain, and swelling.
Malfunctioning or incorrectly-set medical devices often cause much more severe radiation burns. These third-degree burns inflict damage on all skin layers and often extend into underlying tissues, causing a leathery or charred external appearance, nerve damage leading to loss of sensation, and significant scarring.
Speaking of medical negligence, burn injuries have very high infection rates. Usually, a Carlsbad personal injury lawyer must file a separate claim to obtain compensation for such injuries.
Rely on a Dedicated San Diego County Lawyer
Injury victims are entitled to substantial compensation. For a confidential consultation with an experienced personal injury lawyer in Carlsbad, contact the Pursley Law Firm. The sooner you reach out to us, the sooner we start working for you.
Source:
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8223566/
