Burns are among the most serious injuries an injury victim can suffer, whether from a house fire, a workplace accident, a car accident, or a burn from scalding water, chemicals, or unrelenting sun exposure. Burn injuries are often excruciatingly painful, prone to infection, and leave serious scarring and disfigurement. Suffering a serious burn accident is always devasting, but it’s even more distressing when the burn injury was preventable and resulted from someone else’s careless, reckless, or wrongful actions.
When another person, business, employer, or other entity causes you or a loved one to suffer serious burn injuries, the injury victim shouldn’t be left responsible for the financial damages in addition to the often devastating physical consequences. A personal injury claim after serious burn injuries provides compensation and a sense of justice to a victim.
What Are the Common Types of Burn Injuries?
Most burns result from the skin’s exposure to intense heat, caustic chemicals, or radiation. The human skin is a major organ system meant to protect the body from invasion by bacteria while also keeping the underlying muscles, bones, and organs intact. When burns compromise the skin barrier, the results are serious and require emergency and sometimes long-term medical treatment. Common types of burn injuries include the following:
- Thermal burns caused by direct heat exposure from flames, hot surfaces, or scalding water
- Radiation burns are caused by exposure to high levels of radiation such as ultraviolet radiation from the sun and tanning beds or external beam radiation therapy
- Chemical burns caused by exposure to caustic chemicals such as acids, oxidants, and gases
- Electrical burns caused by exposure to electrical voltage
Doctors measure burn injuries by depth or penetration through the skin’s layers. First-degree burns are superficial and restricted to the top layer of skin, causing pain but typically no lasting damage. Second-degree burns are partial-thickness burns that penetrate through to the lower layer of skin. They are prone to infection and may cause significant scarring. Second-degree burns require medical treatment. Third-degree burns are full-thickness burns that penetrate below the skin and into the fat, muscle, and bone. The skin may be white, brown, or charred. The victim may feel little or no pain in these areas due to nerve destruction. Third-degree burns are life-threatening and require extensive medical treatment to prevent infection and fatality.
How Can an Injury Attorney Help?
Burn injury victims face a long road to recovery, particularly those who suffer second and third-degree burns. Expensive medical treatment for pain, infection prevention, minimizing scarring, and restoring function and appearance is necessary. Some victims of third-degree burns may lose digits or limbs and/or suffer from facial disfigurement.
A burn injury lawyer can hold the at-fault party accountable by documenting evidence of liability and carefully calculating the victim’s past, current, and future economic damages and non-economic damages like pain and suffering, disfigurement, scarring, limb loss, and emotional damages like diminished quality of life and PTSD. Call the Cherry Hill personal injury lawyers at Cuneo & Leonetti to speak to the dedicated client advocates who get results for injury victims.