A burning question

[Glenn]

Thomas I quoted the Red Cross at 10 minutes. Personally I agree with you about the FULL 15 MINUTES in water. If you can not take 15 minutes off to protect your body, then you have larger issues.  I follow the 15 minutes with another 15-20 of keeping the burn WET with aloe gel. That is to say wet the burn and work until the aloe starts to dry and then apply more also to the burn area. Repeat as needed for the time suggested. Aloe gel (100%) can be purchased at wal-mart and other stores for $5.00 or so for a large bottle.

 

Your body says it hurts, a lot, but your brain tries to play games and says man up it is not that bad. If after 15 minutes in or under water the burn is still very painful or looks like it needs medical attention, then shut down and go. 

 

Listen to your body as it knows more than your brain about the injury.  The body said that the steel was hot and to drop it. The body said the skin was injured by the hot metal. The body said to wave your arm and then spit on the burn. During this time the brain is still in catch up mode. The brain then kicked into gear and wanted to know how bad the injury was and wanted to see.

 

I have yet to see any project that is worth getting hurt over. Would you sign on to a project knowing that you would loose the use of one hand, loose an eye, loose a limb, or loose the ability to move due to a back injury? It is called personal safety because it is your personal responsibility to be sure YOU are safe. Accidents happen, but you can make them not happen or be less severe with personal safety. It is YOUR choice.

 

Many times we suggest a 5 gallon bucket of clean water. Just large enough for a foot if a hot one goes down into a boot or shoe, good for a fresh quench tank, water available for fire when it gets loose, and redily available and good for a burn.

[Steve Sells]

I agree with much of what has been posted so far.  I will now state that besides being an electrician, I have a few other unrelated Certifications, among them I am a Red Cross instructor as well as a former EMT for the state of Indiana, and I have worked in the burn unit.

 

After removing the heat using cool (not iced) water, inspect the injury, if only red marks present, and you wish to deal with it yourself, thats not too bad as this is the sign of a first degree burn.   But if any blustering (second degree burn) or worse injury,  then cover lightly with a protective clean cloth and get it seen by a professional.  Before deciding on aloe or any so called burn creams, I need to inform you that if you have to go get professional help, then the first thing that will happen to you is the scrubbing off of the butter, aloe, creams, etc that some well meaning but misinformed person put on it, to clean the wound from that additional contamination.   Since your skin is now unable to do its job of protecting your body  We must get the area as sterile as we can, and surgical removal of the now dead/dying material (that means your skin/muscle etc that was killed,  and I have already heard the Dr Mengle comments about this)  anything you put on a burn at the job site, may have to be removed later.  Because anything worse than a simple first degree burn has unseen damage inside that must be addressed before serious infection sets in.   FYI

[EricJergensen]

One point that has always bothered me is the description of cooling the burn so that it won't keep burning. Unless you have a super, super serious burn it *is* cooled to near body temperature by the time you can get to water. That nasty sizzle is water from your tissues boiling away and taking most of the heat. The surface tissue is near the water temperature within mere seconds of immersion.

 

If it were really holding that much heat, you'd blister your tongue when you reflexively put it in your mouth ;-). 

 

However, the point about running cool water is absolutely on track and it does limit tissue damage. Cooling the affected tissue to below body temperature will reduce inflammation and related processes that continue to kill cells (apoptosis -- cells dying in response to distress signals from other cells, etc). And, it addresses discomfort as well.

[Glenn]

We may want to define and specifically address each type burn.  

 

I feel we are mixing different types of burns and different treatments and cross linking the two.

[Steve Sells]

First degree:        Redness, with no serious tissue damage. keep clean, If full curcumferance treat as second drgree.

Second degree:   Blistering and discolouration, swelling, seepage, needs mdeical treatment to avoid secondary infections. out patient care to over night or longer stay is possible.  Watch for shock.  If this results in a full circumference treat as third degree.

Third degree:        Deep tissue destruction, obviously burned, normal result is permanent damage, even loss of effected body part possible.  Most likely long term hospitalisation needed.

Fourth degree:     Very Rare, resulting from nuclear or other situations where burning and damage continues after removal from origonal source.

 

full circumference is a condition where the damaged area has encircled a limb or other section of the body, and  like girdling a tree,  can cause much more long term problems than is apparent from the injury itself. In addition to these, the percentage of body damaged and the types of burns combine to place injured party in to other catagories tthat are beyond a forum post.

[Steve McCarthy]

In July of 1999 I was burned at work. A sawdust silo exploded and I was run over by the truck I was loading. I had a 27% burn, 4 broken ribs, 3 fractures to my scapula, and nerve damage to my shoulder. Both of my hands, half of my left arm and most of my back were skin grafted. A long hospital stay, twice daily dressing changes, 3 graft surgeries, physical therapy, compression suit, none of this was even a little bit fun. Guess where the skin for the grafts came from! Infection is the biggest problem with deep burns. Ordinary burns and blisters hurt and are annoying, but deep burns need medical attention.  

[ausfire]

Four days into the burn recovery now. Healing quite well with antiseptic and Ungvita (Vitamin A) cream, but still sore and stiff. Did a half day demo yesterday and three more days to go. Difficult to hold a hammer with usual grip, but only doing light hooks and handles and other small stuff. Was going to try drawing out a rail spike but one strong hit was enough to forget that idea.
I am right-handed, so the odd burn from blacksmithing is usually on the left. This burn is on the right thumb because it was an oxy accident and the torch was held in the left hand, while the rigt hand bent the metal.
I would post a photo but it would not be pretty. :-(