Second Degree Burns

Published on: October 18, 2011

Burn Injuries from Electric and Natural Gas Service in the Home Are Too Common

A few weeks ago in Kinston, NC, a utility worker was injured badly after 7,200 volts of electricity traveled through his body when he came in contact with an underground power wire. The worker, whose name was not released at press time, was working to fix a power outage when the incident happened. He was taken to the burn unit at UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill because he suffered second degree and third degree burns. One city official said the worker has second degree burns to his face and chest, and third degree burns to his arms and legs. The employee is a lineman who’s been with the city for 25 years. He was working on an underground primary line in a ditch when he was shocked.

That same week in Lake Katrine, NY, a faulty propane gas line caused a home fire that severely burned an elderly couple. The fire left the unidentified woman hospitalized in critical condition at Jacobi Medical Center in New York City, with burns over 90 percent of her body. The man was taken to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla with burns on about 40 percent of his body. Neighbors trying to help the couple also suffered burns that required medical treatment.

Officials investigating the fire say it is likely that there was a leak in the line between an outdoor propane tank and the stove inside the home, which caused an explosion.

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Published on: October 14, 2011

Burns and Smoke Inhalation from Kitchen Fires Can Be Deadly–and Preventable

By Larry Kramer

In Las Vegas in early October, a casino employee was lucky to have survived after suffering smoke inhalation after a fire started inside his restaurant’s grease duct.

Firefighters quickly doused the fire a little before 9 a.m. on a Sunday at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort, and damage was confined to a small mechanical room. And the local fire chief credited the design of the duct system for containing the fire. The Wynn resort is about 10 years old, so it has a very modern design that helps with fire prevention so that a small fire cannot spread easily and become a large fire that threatens any more lives.

On the other hand, many older restaurants around the country are not designed in the same way. As a result, they have a much higher chance of being engulfed in a rapidly-spreading fire if their grease ducts and air ducts are not cleaned regularly. Restaurant managers have an obligation to make sure this cleaning happens enough so that there is only a small chance of a grease fire growing out of control.

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Published on: October 13, 2011

A Lesson Learned: Child Suffers Severe Burns in Starbucks Accident

By Larry Kramer

In late September, a 13-month-old girl received severe burns from an accident at a Starbucks Coffee shop in Stuart, FL.

According to the local sheriff’s office, witnesses saw the mother of Lourdes Marsh place the infant in a clip-on tabletop chair that had been manually attached to the table. The chair has no legs that touch the ground, and such a chair is meant for children who are about Lourdes’ age. But for some reason, the weight of the child placed into the chair caused the table to fall over, sending a large cup of very hot coffee and another large cup of hot tea onto Lourdes.

Lourdes received second-degree burns to her face and upper torso. Witnesses said that skin was steaming, red, and coming off her body. A fire/rescue spokesman said the burns covered 20 percent of her body. For a child that small, 20 percent is a dangerously large portion of the body. What’s more, blistering of the skin from burns is a dangerous situation–not only does it require immediate professional medical care, but it makes it possible that the child will have permanent scars. While the child was being taken by helicopter to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami as a precaution, she was alert, which was a positive sign. And after a few days, Lourdes was recovering at home, although the extent of any permanent scarring will not be know for some time.

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Published on: September 20, 2011

Man Suffers Third Degree Burns After Dust Explostion in Factory

By Larry Kramer

On September 13, 2011, a 46-year-old man working at an alloy plant in Ottawa, Canada, was rushed to a hospital with second degree burns and third degree burns over 30 percent of his body, after being caught in a dust explosion and fire.

Local firefighters evacuated a warehouse at Masterloy Products Co. following an explosion that occurred in the plant’s dust collection unit, near a door. A burnt-out forklift was located next to the door at the time of the first explosion, and could have been the source of a second explosion. While a hazardous materials unit was dispatched to the blaze, no toxins were found at the site, which is fortunate for other workers who possibly were exposed to smoke inhalation.

The injured worker suffered second degree burns on his torso and third degree burns on his legs and back, said a paramedic team spokeswoman. He was taken to the trauma unit at The Ottawa Hospital, where his condition was listed as serious. The man was scheduled to be transported to a burn unit shortly thereafter. The paramedic spokesman added that the man may have also suffered a blast injury, which could have caused internal injuries to the man’s organs.

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Published on: August 31, 2011

The Sun Can Cause Severe Burns Even in Late Summer, So Take Precautions

By Larry Kramer

Here’s a story that provides more than one lesson in why you need to protect yourself with the best sunblock to avoid severe burns as you enjoy the late-summer sun.

In Texas, a man was hospitalized with second-degree burns when he fell asleep while outside in the sun without his shirt on. Police say it is likely that the man was intoxicated by alcohol or another substance, which is why the pain from his sunburn did not wake him up. And when he did finally wake up, his pain was so severe that he jumped into the lake next to the pier he was sunbathing on–and then had to be rescued!

Police officers were initially called by someone who saw the burning man on the pier, but by the time police arrived the man had jumped into the water. The police notified the local EMS/ambulance service, and that team successfully pulled the victim from the water. But they immediately noticed the severity of the victim’s burns, which included blisters all over his body from the 100-degree heat.

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Published on: August 23, 2011

Potential Legal Liability of Third Parties in Recent Burn Cases

By Larry Kramer

A case is making its way through the Iowa civil courts this month that involves the potential legal liability of a day-care center where a toddler suffered severe burns.

The parents and grandmother of the severely burned toddler have sued the owners of an Ankeny, IA child-care center, accusing the couple of “willful and wanton disregard for the rights or safety” of a boy whose diaper was changed within reach of a crock pot filled with very hot water.

Polk County court papers filed earlier this week accuse Bryan and Sue Jansen, owners of a company doing business as Ankeny Christian Child Care, of negligence for leaving the container within reach of where Seth Brown was having his diaper changed on Aug. 20, 2009.

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Published on: July 19, 2011

Know Your Sunscreen and Sunblock Products to Avoid Burns

By Larry Kramer

Sunscreens are chemicals that are designed to be absorbed by the skin in order to form a sun barrier so you do not get first-degree or even second-degree burns (blisters). Many of the chemicals have been broken down into tiny particles so that they can be sprayed or absorbed more easily. There is clear evidence that they prevent sunburn, but there is very little known about the safety of these chemicals and their effectiveness in reducing skin cancer from sun exposure. There are also studies whose statistical evidence shows that in some cases these chemicals may actually increase your risk of cancer. There are three primary concerns with the chemicals in sunscreen:

1) They are free-radical generators which breakdown the DNA in cells and potentially make them more prone to cancer.

2) They often have strong estrogenic effects, meaning the chemicals could actually interfere with normal sexual development.

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Published on: July 14, 2011

Learn About Skin Protection to Avoid Sunburns This Summer

By Larry Kramer

A recent article from the Associated Press addressed exactly the type of information we want to provide to you each week in this blog. Here is a summary:

About a third of adults get sunburns each year, and most of those people actually get more than one, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s a bigger problem than pain, because sunburns are believed to increase risk of the most serious type of skin cancer, melanoma. There aren’t good figures on how often children get sunburned, but their tender skin can burn especially easily.

While water and sand reflect ultraviolet (UV) rays and make sunburns worse, it’s not just the beachgoer who’s at risk. A sunburn can hit anyone–from kids playing ball to their parents watching, to the person who does gardening in the backyard.

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Published on: July 12, 2011

Even After July 4th, Fireworks Are Around and Can Cause Severe Burns

By Larry Kramer

Last week in a town in Indiana, a mother took her small children to a local shopping mall parking lot to watch a few different individuals set off fireworks. This was not an approved event by the shopping mall owner or the local authorities, but we all know that such things happen all the time in towns across the country, and many of us go to watch these events even though they are neither professionally run nor legally allowed.

The problem is, these non-professionals who are setting off fireworks almost never take the proper precautions to ensure that spectators do not get burned. So when one of the people setting off fireworks in that Indiana town last week accidentally kicked over a mortar while he lit the fuse, all he could do was watch as the rocket took off sideways and right into a crowd of spectators.

The result was first-degree burns on the shoulders, neck, and head for one 3-year-old girl. The mother explained that her daughter, along with four of the toddler’s cousins, were sitting on two blankets in the parking lot, along with many other people watching both the legal fireworks being launched at the nearby La Porte County Fairgrounds and the illegal ones being lit in the parking lot.

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Published on: May 17, 2011

With Children, the Risk of Severe Burns is Much Higher

By Larry Kramer

With the way that small children manage to get into everything, adults must be extra vigilant and careful when it comes to both fire safety and burn safety when kids are present.

Two stories from this past week make this point very clearly. First, in northwest Florida, Meigs County police say that a mom named Teresa Reed is in stable condition at the Joseph Still Burn Center in Augusta–but is very lucky to be alive.

Officers say a fire broke out around ten o’clock at night on May 11 in Reed’s apartment, and that it was started when Reed’s five-year-old son fell asleep after playing with matches.

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