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Hospitals Aren’t Ready for a Mass Casualty Wildfire

OF ALL THE wildfires that ravaged California in 2018, the Camp Fire was the deadliest. It tore through the mountain town of Paradise and killed at least 85 people, destroying the local Feather River Hospital along the way—so just as emergency services were trying to evacuate and tend to the injured, they also had to transport admitted patients.

That moment made real a problem that specialists had been warning about for years. “There were four beds immediately available in the entirety of Northern California for a burn patient. Everyone else was going to have to wing it,” says Tina Palmieri, director of the Firefighters Burn Center at UC Davis, which would receive 10 burn victims…

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 What to do if you get burned

Do you recall a time when you were young, maybe around 10 years old, and you wanted to see how hot the stove was, so you touched it? Or the first time you tried to straighten your hair for the school dance and accidentally burned your ear? We’ve all been there.

Articles of Interest

Burn Classification

Superficial Burns: These present as a blanching, dry, red discoloration of the skin. These burns are painful. Think of a really bad sun burn. Basically you rub some lotion on these patients, and suggest they try aloe. You can ignore all the other treatments I talk about below. These burns should heal in about 3-6 days, so let them know they’ll be feeling kinda miserable for a hot sec. Superficial Partial Thickness: These burns typically occur from a splash or a flash burn. The burn itself is blistered, pink, moist, and is painful. These patients may need a burn center if they have a partial burn >10% TBSA or a burn to their important pieces (face, hands, genitalia, etc.) Deep Partial Thickness: As is obvious by the name, these burns extend deeper into the skin layers: all the way through the dermis. But basically these can present as any variation between superficial partial and full. They can be any color, wet or dry. They can have blisters. But they aren’t superficial partial because they do not blanch. And they aren’t full thickness because there are no eschars. Use the same decision process as superficial partial thickness to decide who to send to a burn center. Full thickness: No matter what, these patients need to go to a burn center. To try to prevent contractures, serious infections, death these patients are going to need debridement, excision, re-excisions, grafts and a whole lot of love and care by specialists.

Burn Care, Self-Immolation: Pain And Progress

We’ve all heard of first, second, and third degree burns, but what exactly do these labels mean?

Burn Survivor Katie Piper Works to Help Others Heal

On March 31, 2008, the life of Katie Piper, a 24-year-old British model and up-and-coming TV personality, changed with a splash of sulfuric acid. An assailant, hired by an abusive man she had briefly dated, flung the corrosive liquid in Ms. Piper’s face on a London street. The attack melted her skin, burned her esophagus, blinded her left eye and disfigured her face beyond recognition. “Kill me,” she wrote in a note to her mother at the hospital.

Fire-related Injuries in Children

Patients exposure to fire and smoke likely have a component of carbon monoxide and cyanide poisoning and providers should treat empirically if high suspicion or significant exposure: CO poisoning is treated with 100% oxygen. Cyanide poisoning is treated with Hydroxocobalamin.

Hand sanitizer and fireworks don't mix, experts warn

The combination of hand sanitizer and fireworks is a "recipe for disaster."

Home Remedies For Burns: Foods You Can Use As Medicine

If you’ve spent any time cooking, we’re willing to bet you’ve had your fair share of run-ins with a blistering oven or a scorching pan that resulted in a burn. While a serious burn should be treated professionally, most people find their own home remedies when it comes to smaller burns. And many of them involve food.

India’s Burn-Care Management Suffers From Lack Of Data, Beds, Trained Medics

The health ministry attributes the high incidence of burn cases to illiteracy, poverty and low safety consciousness among people. A good way to address this would be to create awareness about burn injuries, said Arun Kumar Singh, who heads the National Academy of Burns-India. “We also have to extend universal health coverage to burn victims,” he said.

Lessons in strength: Canaan Knoles refuses to let burn injury define future

“Burn survivors need psycho-social support as well,” said Cochran. “Burn victims commonly have post-traumatic stress and it can be a real issue with their re-entry in work or school. The goal is to reintegrate them back into society and being back to normal while helping them navigate on how to answer questions when people ask patients about their skin or stare at them.

McDonald's Workers Claim Managers Recommend Treating Burns With Condiments

More than two dozen low-wage McDonald’s workers filed health and safety complaints against the fast-food chain on Monday, alleging that understaffing and time pressures in stores have led to burns, falls and other injuries, according to the worker group representing them.

Meth Lab Injuries On The Rise In The U.S.

Unlike drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin, which come from plants, methamphetamine (meth) is made from other chemicals, often in makeshift home laboratories. But when things go awry in a meth lab, it can lead to fires, explosions, injuries and environmental contamination...

Nearly 9 million injured worldwide by fire, heat, and hot substances in 2017

Eight countries, including the US, accounted for half of all heat-related deaths in 2017.

Nearly half of Americans lack knowledge of burn injuries and treatment

New survey shows limited awareness as families prepare to use grills, firepits, and fireworks for summer.

Recent Trends in Burn Epidemiology Worldwide: A Systematic Review

Burn injuries have been more prevalent among low socioeconomic populations and in less developed regions. Incredible advances in burn care and social development over the recent decades, however, should have placed the incidence and severity of burns in a downwards trend.

Severe Burns May Let "Bad Bacteria" Take Over the Gut

New study finds that a burn may change the community of bacteria within a person's gut, and possibly lead to an increased risk of infection.

The Right Way to Treat Burns, According to Dermatologists

Everything you need to know help your skin heal and lessen the look of scars.

This spray-on nanofiber ‘skin’ may revolutionize burn and wound care

Shaped like a gun, Nanomedic’s SpinCare device emits a web of electrospun polymer nanofabric that stays put for weeks—no dressing changes required.

Resources

ReSurge

ReSurge envisions a world in which no human being suffers physically or emotionally from a repairable congenital deformity or injury. To reach that vision, ReSurge partners with volunteers and overseas medical partners to both provide surgical care and to educate and empower local medical professionals so that high-quality surgical access is available year-round—now and for generations to come.

Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation

At age eight, Alisa Ann Ruch was fatally injured in a backyard barbecue accident in Southern California. Bravely using their tragedy as a catalyst for change, Alisa Ann’s parents, local firefighters and medical professionals joined together and created AARBF in 1971 with the goal of preventing burn injuries by teaching “Stop, Drop, and Roll.”

Burn Foundation

The Burn Foundation has worked to benefit the Philadelphia community by preventing fires and burn injuries, supporting our regional burn centers, and to advocating for burn survivors and their families.

Children’s Burn Foundation

The Children’s Burn Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing support services for child burn survivors, ages 0-18 and their families, as well as burn prevention and fire safety education to thousands of children and caregivers in Southern California, nationally, and internationally.

Grossman Burn Foundation

The Grossman Burn Foundation’s mission is to promote effective, sustainable partnership solutions for the comprehensive treatment, care, and support of burn survivors and their families in the United States and around the world.

International Society for Burn Injuries

One of the main aims of our society is to disseminate knowledge and stimulate prevention in the field of burns.

The Sanders & Matits Burn Foundation

We are two gentlemen that were burned as children and would like to make a difference in young burn survivors' lives by showing them there is a life after being burned.

Journal of Burn Care & Research

Journal of Burn Care & Research provides the latest information on advances in burn prevention, research, education, delivery of acute care, and research to all members of the burn care team.

American Burn Association

The American Burn Association and its members dedicate their efforts and resources to promoting and supporting burn-related research, education, care, rehabilitation, and prevention.

WHO

Globally, burns are a serious public health problem. An estimated 265 000 deaths occur each year from fires alone, with more deaths from scalds, electrical burns, and other forms of burns, for which global data are not available.