Los Angeles Burn Injury Lawyers
The Los Angeles burn injury attorneys at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo have over three decades of experience helping burn injury victims win their cases and get their maximum compensation. All burn injuries need treatment as soon as possible as the injury may get worse. It is very important to get help and get better as the skin is one of the main barriers against infections. We are able to help you regardless of whether the burn injury happened while working, in a car accident, if you were scalded and burnt by hot coffee or hot tea or if any other type of burn injury occurred to you or a loved one. Our injury firm has experience representing the full range of burn injury cases from workers’ compensation claims and personal injury cases to work injury cases.
Call the Firm You Can Trust
If you have had a second or third degree burn be sure to call for medical help first. The second phone call that you should make should probably be to seasoned burn injury lawyers who know how to help you legally and who can make sure you are getting the proper medical attention. We look forward to your call so we can start helping you. Call us at (213) 416-2472.
Lawyers You Can Trust
Our Los Angeles California injury attorneys at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo will compile a comprehensive team of professionals to help with your case. That team will work together for you and can include therapists, economists, physicians, vocational experts and more.
Definition of Burn Injury
Burns can be traumatic and they can be caused by heat, fire, radiation, electricity, chemicals, or friction. Around the world, burns cause around 300,000 deaths every year. Four thousand people who die due to burns are Americans with around 2,000 being kids under 15 years of age. Burns are classified by how deep they are, how much skin damage there is, and how much damage was caused to surrounding area including the underlying tissues. The exposed areas of our body are more likely to be burned including face burn injuries, finger burn injuries, feet burn injuries, neck burn injuries, hand burn injuries, and arm burn injuries.
Burn Injuries: 1st Degree
Sunburns are a common example of first degree burns but first degree burns can be worse than the average sunburn. First degree burn injuries are when only the top layer of the skin has been affected and the usual signs include some swelling, redness, white plaque, and pain. It could take about 5 to 7 days to finish the healing process.
Burn Injuries: 2nd Degree
Second degree burn injuries are when more than just the victim’s outermost layer of skin has been burned. The burn could even go as deep as the reticular dermis layer of the skin. The signs for 2nd degree burns are redness, mild to severe pain, and blistering. The healing time averages around 3 weeks.
Burn Injuries: 3rd Degree
Third degree burns are very serious injuries as the burn injures every layer of the skin and most likely even injures the tissue beneath the skin. Since these burn injuries damage the nerves, they may not cause any pain for the victim. The burn victim will still be in some pain, though, since the majority of 3rd degree burn injuries have 1st or 2nd degree burns surrounding them that are still painful. The signs that it actually is a third degree burn are a combination of the burned area of the body looking white, brown, charred, or leathery.
A Newer Classification System
Recently, a new system to classify burn injuries is growing in popularity. Doctors like it because the burn’s characteristics are part of the name. In this system, 1st degree burns are named Superficial Thickness; 2nd degree burns are called Partial Thickness – Superficial; and 3rd degree burns are called Partial Thickness – Deep. This new system has also created a 4th degree burn which refers to Full Thickness burn injuries.
Burned While Working
Burns are one injury that still occurs probably every day to someone working. Chemical burns, kitchen and restaurant fires, building fires, and welding burn injuries are a few examples of work burn injuries. Our work injury firm has over thirty years of experience as workers compensation lawyers in Los Angeles (as well as personal injury cases) for burn injuries so you can trust us to work hard for you and get you the maximum compensation you deserve.
Causes for Burn Injuries
The following are some of the more likely causes for burn injuries.
- Fire (eg: touching the fireplace or campfire)
- Scalding (eg: from spilled hot coffee, steam or boiling water)
- Radiation burns (eg: from sunburns or radiation therapy)
- Electrical burns (eg: electric shocks)
- Chemical burns (eg: strong acids like sulfuric acid)
- Heat burns (eg: hot metals or the stove)
- Building Fire;
- On The Job Accidents;
- Construction Site Accidents;
- Work injuries;
- Tanning salon overuse or negligence;
- Car, SUV and Truck accidents;
- Motorcycle accidents;
- Defective Products; and
- Welding burn injuries.
TBSA (Total Body Surface Area)
All bodies are different in terms of shape, size, and weight. Professionals have created a calculation technique to estimate how much total area of the body has been burned. This is mostly used for burn injuries that are 2nd or 3rd degree. It is called the Rule of 9s. They have separated the adult human body into 11 separate sections. Each section is estimated to be about 9% of the total body surface area. The remaining 1% refers to burn injuries to the genitals. The eleven sections refer to: left arm and hand burn injuries, right arm and hand burn injuries, chest and neck burn injuries, upper back burn injuries, lower back burn injuries, head burn injuries, left thigh burn injuries, right thigh burn injuries, abdomen burn injuries, left lower leg, calf and foot burn injuries and right lower leg, calf and foot burn injuries.
Treatments for Burns
Regardless of whether your injury has been a leg burn, toe burn, arm burn, stomach burn, thigh burn, head burn, hand burn, or a burn anywhere else, you should contact help immediately. Treatments differ depending on what degree the burn is, the location of the burn, their overall condition (eg: dehydration) and what other injuries were sustained (eg: broken bones or muscle strains). For serious burn injuries, treatments might include skin grafting, the removal of dead skin (debridement), cosmetic surgery, or other types of surgeries for burn injuries. Massage, acupuncture, and physical therapy are some of the follow-up treatments.
Critical Burn Injury Areas
Some burns are classified as critical just because of their location (as long as they are 2nd or 3rd degree burns). These four areas include: a person’s genitals, face or if the burns include full hand burn injuries or full foot burn injuries.
Contact Our Firm – Free Consultation
Call us today to schedule your free initial consultation and finally get complete answers to your questions and concerns. We work on a contingency basis where you will not owe or pay us anything until and unless we win your case. The Los Angeles burn injury attorneys at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo will come directly to your home or hospital room if you are unable to come to our office. Most meetings are during the normal hours of Monday through Friday between 8:30am and 5:30pm. By appointment, though, we will have the meeting on Saturdays, Sundays and in the evening. We look forward to helping you recover.
Law Firm of DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo
Los Angeles, California ~ (213) 416-2472
Poison Control Number
In case you need it, here is the number for Poison Control if you think you swallowed a chemical or other dangerous substance: 1-800-222-1222.
