Massachusetts Personal Injury Library
Burn Injuries and Children (Part A)
Burn injuries constitute the second most common cause of death in children in the United States. The U.S. is reported to have one of the highest fire death and injury rates in the world. Almost 40,000 children wind up in hospitals each year due to burn injuries, and approximately 3,000 children die each year from severe burns and the resulting complications.
Children who survive severe burning can be left with blistering, bleeding, scarring, loss of skin, infection, and other secondary injuries specific to different burn types. Child burn injury victims may also require counseling to deal with the emotional and psychological ramifications of their injuries.
There are four major burn categories:
- Thermal
- Electrical
- Chemical
- Light
Scalding is the most common type of burn for younger children (for older children it is open flame), either from water in the kitchen or bathroom, from hot beverages, or from hot liquids left cooking on the stove or cooling on the counter. The most obvious form of prevention is, as ever, supervision; don’t leave children unattended around hot stoves or open flames.
Preventing Burn Injuries
Educate your children and communicate with them about how to behave when the stove is on or how to look for steam from their food and drink; how to behave around an open flame; and that they need to ask an adult to work lighters and light candles or fireworks. Hand-test bath water for your young children.
There are also hot water safety devices on the market. While your children are too young to be fully responsible for self-policing the hot water taps, you can lower the temperature of your water heater. According to Burn Injury Online, it takes only 1 second to receive 3rd degree burns from 150° F water. By lowering the temperature to 130° F you buy yourself 29 seconds. To prevent serious scalding, you should set your water heater to 120° F. At this temperature it would take 8 minutes for 2nd degree burns to form and 10 minutes for 3rd degree burns.
When selecting a Massachusetts child injury lawyer you’ll want to ask critical questions such as; how long have you been practicing law; do you have experience with child accident cases in Boston, Massachusetts; what is the biggest settlement or verdict you have won? For over 30 years Kiley Law Group, located in Andover and Boston, Massachusetts, has fought on behalf of children. Our child injury lawyers take time when speaking with you about your child’s injuries. Mr. Kiley’s firm works with you on a contingency basis, which means there are NO FEES unless our trained personal injury attorneys win your case. Call now for a FREE legal consultation.
Continued To Next Page >>
