Articles Tagged with Burn injury Lawyer Sacramento

Sacramento Burn Victim Phone Scam

Sacramento Burn Victims Phone Scam

I’m Ed Smith, a burn injury lawyer serving Sacramento. Elizabeth Sower received a bogus phone call asking her for a cash donation to help Sacramento burn victims. In the past, she gladly donated to help burn victims. This time, however, she noted something peculiar in the phone call.

Burn Trauma

Burn Injuries

Even though the number of burn injuries is going down in the US, about 1.25 million people get burned each year.  About 60,000-80,000 people require hospitalization for their burns and 5500 die from their injuries.   Most burns requiring hospitalization involve body areas greater than 10 percent or those that involve the face, hands, feet, or perineum.  Most burns are flame burns or scald burns.

Mortality Rate

The mortality rate at which 50 percent of the patients die is about 98 percent total burn surface area.  This has improved dramatically over the years.   This is true of people under the age of 14. The statistics are worse for elderly adults, where a 35 percent degree burn kills half of all patients.

Criteria for Burn Unit Admission

Not all people need to be admitted to a burn center.  Those that do meet these criteria:

  • Second and third-degree burns greater than 10 percent of body surface area.
  • Full-thickness burns
  • Any burn of the face, hands, feet, eyes, ears or perineum
  • Electrical injury
  • Inhalational injury
  • Chemical burns
  • Burns in patients with other significant health problems

Classifying Burns

Burns are classified into six different causes: flash burns, flame burns, liquid spill, liquid immersion, grease, or steam burns.  They are also classified according to burn depth.  There are superficial burns (first-degree burns), partial-thickness burns (second degree) full-thickness or deep partial-thickness burns (third degree), or burns involving deep tissues or organs (fourth-degree).

Skin Layers

The skin is the barrier to burns, and when it is breached, there is deeper involvement beneath the skin.  There is a deep layer, known as the “zone of stasis” involved in deeper wounds in which the blood flow is greatly diminished.  Giving medications that improve blood flow to the skin can decrease the depth of the burn. Continue reading ›

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