Orange County Burn Injury Attorneys

Everyone has suffered at least a mild burn at some point in their lives, whether from a wayward campfire ember or a grease splatter while cooking. Burns are common in the United States, with approximately 486,000 people needing medical treatment for burns every year. Unfortunately, fire-related deaths are also common, and the CDC found that one fire-related death happened every 169 minutes in 2012.

Burn Injuries

Burns are caused by electricity, heat, chemicals, radiation, or friction. They are a type of skin injury that are rated by how deep the burn went, how much damage was caused to the skin, and how much damage was caused to the surrounding area, such as the underlying tissues. Exposed parts of the body are at the most risk of being burned.

Types of Burn Injuries

Burns happen in a number of ways. While most of us associate burns with flames, that’s not the only way they occur. The American Burn Association estimates:

• 44% of burn center admissions are due to fires.
• 33% are the result of scalding.
• 9% are from direct contact with a heat source or hot surface.
• 4% of all burn injuries are electrical burns.
• 3% are chemical burns
• 7% happen from miscellaneous sources.

In many cases, especially concerning electrical or chemical burns, the accident may have been caused by someone else’s negligence. Electrical and chemical burns are a common hazard in many occupations, which is why OSHA enforces safety regulations. Sadly, it’s not uncommon to see workplace injuries occur as a result of company negligence. If a company doesn’t have thorough safety standards in place, they will almost certainly be held liable for any accidents that result.

Negligence and Burn Injury

In a personal injury claim, your attorney’s job is to prove the other party’s negligence. There are many situations where a burn injury can be a result of negligence, such as:

• Someone threw a flammable substance onto a bonfire and made it burn out of control.
• Your laptop battery, which was known to have issues, caught fire and burned you.
• A live wire was exposed in your workplace and caused an electrical fire.
• You work in an industrial facility and a spill caused you to suffer chemical burns.
• Long-term exposure to radiation, such as in a hospital setting, caused radiation burns.
• Your apartment complex caught fire because of faulty or old wiring.
• A defective product, such as a hoverboard, spontaneously bursts into flames.

There are a number of ways a burn accident can be caused by the negligence of another person or business. Your attorney will examine the facts to determine if you have a possible case.

Damages in a Burn Injury Case

Depending on the severity of your burn injuries, you may be able to claim a significant amount of damages. Especially if there is property damage, costs may be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Damages can include:

• Medical expenses, like doctor’s visits and treatment. This is an economic damage.
• Lost wages now and in the future, which is also an economic damage.
• Property damage which is also an economic damage.
• Pain and suffering, both mental and physical. This is a non-economic damage and must be calculated using a specialized formula.
• Wrongful death and punitive damages in severe cases. These are also non-economic damages that are awarded when the other party acted negligently.

The Rule of 9s

Medical professionals have come up with a technique to uniformly describe how much area of the human body has been covered by 2nd or 3rd degree burns. Called the Rule of 9s, it quickly predicts the total body surface area (TBSA) that has been burned by splitting the adult human body into eleven sections which they consider each to be roughly 9%. The last remaining 1% refers to genital burn injuries. The eleven sections are: head, right arm and hand , left arm and hand , chest and neck, abdomen, upper back, lower back, right thigh burn, left thigh, right lower leg, calf and foot and left lower leg, calf and foot.

Treatment

If you have a burn injury, regardless of where it is, be sure to contact a medical professional. Treatments differ depending on the degree of the burn and where it is. It is a general rule not to break any blisters that are a result of your burn injury, no matter how tempting it may be. Treatments for the burns will also include making sure to solve any dehydration or infection issues. For the most sever burn injuries, treatments may also include the removal of dead skin (debridement), skin grafting, or cosmetic surgery. Massage, physical therapy, and acupuncture are some alternate treatments that are now done to help with the overall recovery process.

Contact Us

If you or a loved one has received a burn injury due to negligent behavior, the team at DiMarco Araujo Montevideo is in your corner. We have worked with victims of burn injuries in Orange County since 1979 and now how to achieve results. Contact us today to set up a free consultation.