Burn Injuries Defined
The seriousness of a burn injury depends on two things: how deep the injury is and how much of the body it covers. Burn depth is measured by how many layers of skin are injured. Deep burns can destroy sweat glands, hair follicles, muscles and tissue, and nerves. As a general rule, the deeper the burn, the longer it will take to heal.
First Degree: First degree burns are often called "superficial" burns and only affect the top layer of skin. These normally heal within 5-7 days because the top layer of skin is easily replaced by the body. The most common form of first degree burn is sunburn.
Second Degree: Second degree burns are those that have reached the second layer of skin, the dermis. It is difficult to gauge how long a second degree burn will take to heal, because the dermis of the skin is betweent 15-40 times thicker than the first layer (depending on the placement on the body). Second degree burns usually leave some scarring and sometimes require a skin graft.
Third Degree: Third degree burns are the most serious. These are burns that have reached beyond the dermis into the subcutaneous layer, which contains fat. Third degree burns can go past the subcutaneous layer to damage muscles. Because third degree burns destroy the layer of skin where new skin is produced, these burns require grafting.
For more information on how to prevent and treat burns, please visit Medline Plus, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.
The attorneys at Regan Zambri and Long understand how traumatic a serious burn injury can be for a family and have experience in investigating and prosecuting burn injury claims. Burn injuries are commonly caused by fire, scalding liquids, contact with chemicals, electric shock, motor vehicle and aircraft crashes, and defective products.
