Orange County Burn Injury Attorneys
Since 1979 the Orange County California burn injury lawyers at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo have helped clients with the legal side of burn injury cases. Burns are fairly common as over fifty thousand people every year are hospitalized in the United States for burn injuries. A rather high percentage of over thirty percent of those cases involve young patients under fifteen. All burn injuries need appropriate treatment as the affected area can get worse if untreated. We want to offer you a free initial consultation to discuss your burn injury case regardless of whether it is due to you being severely burned at work or scalded by your hot coffee. Our firm has represented burn injury cases from workers’ compensation claims and personal injury cases to work injury cases where a Third Party is also responsible.
Our Firm’s Pledge to You
Our firm will walk with you and your family throughout the burn injury case’s legal proceedings and your recovery. Our Orange County California burn injury attorneys at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo will compile a full team of experienced professionals to help investigate and present your injury case including therapists, economists, physicians, accident reconstructionists, and vocational experts.
Burn Injury Definition
Burns are caused by electricity, heat, chemicals, radiation or friction. They are a type of skin injury. Burns cause about three hundred thousand deaths a year around the world and countless many more burn injury cases. Americans account for four thousand burn deaths a year with half of that number sadly being children. Burns 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 including the underlying tissues. Exposed parts of our body are the most common to be burned. This includes hand burn injuries, arm burn injuries, face burn injuries, feet burn injuries and neck burn injuries.
First Degree Burn Injury Definition
The most common first degree burn is a sunburn but they can be much worse. First degree burn injuries only affect the outermost layer of the skin. The usual signs are a white plaque, some swelling, redness and pain (though not major). It usually takes under a week for the burn injury to heal.
Second Degree Burn Injury Definition
Second degree burns affect more than just the first layer of skin. They can even go as deep as the reticular dermis layer. The signs are redness, blistering, and moderate to severe pain. The healing times vary depending on how deep the burn went and where it was, but usually it is under three weeks.
Third Degree Burn Injury Definition
Third degree burns are unusual because there may not be any pain at first because the burn injury has damaged the nerves in the area. The signs that it is a third degree burn are that the injured area looks charred, brown, white or leathery. It is when the burn fully affects all of the layers of skin and even causes problems to the tissues beneath the skin.
A New Classification System
The universal method of describing a burn injury has always been using the above first, second and third degree burns. Currently, a new system is taking over due to its much more scientific and descriptive nature. In this system, first degree burns are called Superficial Thickness since it only involves the outer layer of skin. Second degree burns are described as Partial Thickness – Superficial since these are burn injuries that are between the outer layer and the lowest layer of skin. Third degree burns are called Partial Thickness – Deep and this system creates a fourth degree burn which it calls Full Thickness. Regardless of how it is classified, burns are painful and difficult injuries that deserve proper representation by the experienced Orange County burn injury attorneys at | Araujo | Montevideo.
Types of Burn Injury Causes
People are burned every day in various ways. The following is a list of possible causes for burns which include first, second and third degree burns.
- Heat burns (eg: hot metals or the stove)
- Electrical burns (eg: electric shocks)
- Radiation burns (eg: from sunburns or radiation therapy)
- Chemical burns (eg: strong acids like sulfuric acid)
- Scalding (eg: from spilled hot coffee, steam or boiling water)
- Fire (eg: touching the fireplace or campfire)
- Car, SUV and Truck accidents;
- Work injuries;
- Building Fire;
- Motorcycle accidents;
- Tanning salon overuse or negligence;
- On The Job Accidents;
- Construction Site Accidents;
- Defective Products; and
- Welding burn injuries.
Critical Areas for Burn Injuries
Burns that happen to a person’s face or genitals or complete hand burns or complete foot burns are always thought of as critical (unless they are first degree burns).
Treatment for Burn Injuries
If you have a burn injury, regardless of whether it is a hand burn, leg burn, toe burn, arm burn, head burn or anywhere else, be sure to contact a medical professional. Treatments differ with burn injury cases depending on what degree burn it is, where it is and what other injuries were sustained. Keep in mind that most every third degree burn will have first and second degree burns around them. It is a general rule not to break any blisters that are a result of your burn injury. Treatments for the burns will also include making sure to solve any dehydration or infection issues. For serious burn injuries, treatments may also include the removal of dead skin (debridement), skin grafting, cosmetic surgery, or other types of surgery solutions for burn injuries. Massage, physical therapy, and acupuncture are some of the supporting treatments that are now done to help with the overall recovery process.
Burned At Work
American jobs have become a lot safer over the last few decades but burn injuries still happen on a daily basis at work across the country. Chemical burns, welding burn injuries and building fires are types of burn injuries that occur on the job. We have experience with workers’ compensation as well as personal injury cases for burn injuries if you have been hurt while on the job. The work injury attorneys of DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo will investigate your entire case to ensure you receive your due compensation for your burn injury.
Percentage of Burned Skin Rule
Medical professionals have come up with a technique to uniformly describe how much area the burn covered. They usually only use this scale for burns that are 2nd or 3rd degree. They call it the Rule of 9s and it quickly predicts the total body surface area (TBSA) that has been burned. They have broken the adult human body up into eleven sections which they consider each to be roughly 9%. The last remaining 1% refers to genital burn injuries. The eleven sections refer to: head burn injuries, right arm and hand burn injuries, left arm and hand burn injuries, chest and neck burn injuries, abdomen burn injuries, upper back burn injuries, lower back burn injuries, right thigh burn injuries, left thigh burn injuries, right lower leg, calf and foot burn injuries and left lower leg, calf and foot burn injuries.
Poison Control
If the burn injury has come from a corrosive chemical and you think that you or someone else may have swallowed that chemical, here is the number for Poison Control: 1-800-222-1222.
Free Initial Consultation ~ Contact Us
When you contact our firm, we will be able to setup a free initial consultation and case evaluation for you so that you can speak with a lawyer and discuss your specific case. We work for all of our clients on a contingency basis where you will not owe or pay us anything until we win your case. You will not owe us anything if we do not win your case. The Orange County burn injury lawyers at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo still make house calls as we will meet you your own home or your own hospital room if you are unable to come to our office during the normal hours of Monday through Friday between 8:30am and 5:30pm. By appointment, we are more than willing to have the meeting with you on Saturdays, Sundays and in the evening.
Law Firm of DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo
Orange County, California
Call us 24 hours a day at (714) 783-2205
