Louisville, KY Burn Injury Lawyer

United States Fire Administration (USFA) data suggest that 27,000 Americans are either killed or seriously injured every year in fires. When you group the serious and fatal burn injuries along with the more minor burn injuries, the total ratchets up to 1,250,000 incidents a year. Cigarette smoking and cooking are leading causes of burn injuries. But the number of scenarios and factors that can be involved can be truly mind boggling. Here are just a few:

• Chemical burns
• Electrical burns
• Steam burns
• Burns caused by an ultra hot substance, like preheated metal

Prognosis

The prognosis for burn victims also depends on a hugely diverse array of factors, including the intensity of the burn (first degree, second degree, third degree); the area of the body burned; the duration before medical attention was provided; the quality of that medical attention; the effects of long-term treatment on burn areas; the burned individual’s predisposition for infection; and any other complications that might have been caused during the injury, such as smoke inhalation, traumatic brain injury, broken bones, lacerations, contusions, etc.

Medical and Legal Help for Burn Victims

As if burn accident victims did not have their hands full already, victims must often struggle to get fair compensation for their injuries and suffering. Teasing apart precisely what happened – and who might be blamed – involves rigorous work.

For instance, say your child got burned on a play date, after he grabbed a coal in a fireplace. You might want to sue the homeowner (the parent of your child’s play date) to collect money to pay for skin grafts, emergency care, and long-term therapy for your son’s hand. But not only does this scenario raise thorny political questions (assuming that you otherwise like the parents of your son’s play date), but it also raises difficult legal questions.

Did your son disobey the caregiver’s instructions and remove a safeguard to the fireplace, for instance? What happens if your legal argument comes down to a case of “he said versus she said”? If it’s Louisville premises liability case, do the other parents have adequate homeowners insurance to cover the cost of the liability? And so forth.

Managing Your Case’s Complexity

Each case presents different curve balls, legally speaking, and otherwise. Similar complexities can develop with respect to work related burns. For instance, say you are a worker who got burned in a factory explosion, after a co-worker failed to safeguard a flammable organic solvent. Should you try to collect workers’ compensation or sue your employer?

To get your urgent burn injury questions answered by an experienced, resourceful, and compassionate professional, connect with Tad Thomas, a Louisville, KY burn injury lawyer, by calling his offices at (502) 473-6540.