Burns are among the most difficult injuries. They are extremely painful and can be devastating to burn survivors and their families. Burn survivors already require extensive medical care, but some are so severe that people are unable to fully recover.
If you believe somebody else’s actions led to your or your loved one’s burns, a skilled catastrophic injury attorney could help you pursue a financial damages award or workers’ compensation to assist you with your losses. A Joliet burn injury lawyer could assist you throughout every step of a personal injury lawsuit against the person who hurt you.
Common Causes of Burns in Joliet
Although many people think burns occur only from open flames, severe burn injuries also happen from scalding liquids, chemicals, flash heat, explosions, electrocution, and radiation. These injuries frequently occur in the following situations:
- Car and truck accidents – After a crash, gasoline or exposed wires can lead to sparks and fires, and people can also sustain friction burns.
- Boating accidents – Although they do not occur as frequently as car accidents, boating accidents can lead to catastrophic gasoline fires because many boats have exposed fuel tanks.
- Workplace accidents – Burns are among the most common types of workplace injuries. Burns frequently occur at factories, construction sites, and restaurants from fires, faulty wiring, scalding liquids, hazardous chemicals, or explosions.
- Electrocution – Electric shocks from exposed, faulty, or dangling wires can damage skin, muscles, and nerves.
- Radiation – Overexposure to the sun or the ultraviolet light in tanning beds can lead to radiation burns. Damage to the skin and underlying tissues can also occur when a healthcare practitioner is negligent in their application of radiation treatment to cancer patients.
- Defective products – Faulty wiring and other defects can lead to fires or electrocutions from products such as grills, stoves, water heaters, space heaters, and toasters.
A committed Joliet attorney could perform a thorough investigation to determine the burn injury’s cause and identify the potentially responsible parties. They could skillfully examine all relevant evidence, including police reports and medical records. If appropriate, they would also visit the injury scene and speak with eyewitnesses. If the burn occurred from the use of a defective product, a skilled local lawyer may examine the product to see if it had adequate safety features and reasonable manufacturer’s warning labels. Dedicated attorneys could then help an injured claimant recover damages from the at-fault parties, such as negligent car drivers, landlords, employers, healthcare practitioners, or product manufacturers.
Categories of Burn Injuries
Burns vary in severity. Typically, healthcare practitioners label burn injuries in the following manner:
- First-degree burns – These burns cause redness and some pain. They are superficial, cause minimal damage to the top layer of skin, and usually heal without requiring medical treatment.
- Second-degree burns – These burns cause painful blistering, damage two layers of skin, and can result in permanent, disfiguring scarring. Emergency medical treatment is often necessary, particularly when the burn occurs on a sensitive area of the body, like the face, hands, or feet.
- Third and fourth-degree burns – These burns are the most severe and can extend through the skin and bones into the bloodstream and impair organs. These burns always require professional medical treatment, including skin grafts, and can lead to shock, infections, organ failure, blood loss, and death.
Devoted Joliet attorneys could help burn injury survivors seek sufficient damages to get their lives back on track. Lawyers would work their hardest to obtain a damages award that would adequately compensate an injured claimant for all of their losses.
Contact a Joliet Burn Injury Attorney Today
Burns can be devastating. They can leave you with permanent physical and emotional scars, as well as overwhelming financial burdens. However, an experienced Joliet burn injury lawyer could help you get the financial recovery you need and deserve, which would allow you to focus on your physical and emotional recovery. Call today.