Severe burns are among the most devastating of injuries due to the lasting physical and emotional consequences victims frequently suffer. Even worse, many burns often could have been prevented entirely if a business, property owner, or driver had simply taken the appropriate precautions. When those precautions are ignored, people are put at risk of experiencing life-long pain and costly rehabilitation.
Accidents That Result in Burn Injuries
Some accidents come with a higher danger of a burn injury than others, and the specific type of burn suffered can range from mild pain to a life-threatening injury that alters everything about your life going forward.
Burns can occur while working, driving, socializing with friends around a fire pit, or even sleeping in cases of house fires. Some of the specific types of burn injuries victims have experienced in Philadelphia include:
- Building fires
- Car accidents where a vehicle catches fire
- Chemical burns from industrial cleaning agents and other potent substances
- Electric burns
- Gas explosions
- Radiation, typically involving medical equipment
- Thermal burns from sudden contact with a hot liquid, object, or steam
If you've suffered any of these varieties of burns, you need an attorney to evaluate your case and find the best way to recover the full compensation you are owed as you focus on the physical aspect of your recovery.
How Burn Injuries Impact Your Daily Life
Burn wounds frequently involve lengthy recovery periods. In some cases, you may end up dealing with the aftermath of the accident for decades to come. The exact impact on your personal life and ability to work can vary drastically based on the location where the burn took place and the total percentage of skin or muscle affected.
For instance, serious burns on your hands may drastically interfere with your ability to complete normal daily tasks at your place of employment. Burns on any part of the body may require skin graft surgeries that lead to difficulty using the affected limb and the need for ongoing pain management. The severity of a burn will also play a large role in determining what sort of damages you can recover after the accident.
First-degree burns only affect the outer layer of skin and can typically be treated easily while only dealing with short-term effects. Complications like infections are more common with second-degree burns, and these injuries may require serious treatment with longer recovery times. Third-degree burns typically involve permanent damage that will radically affect your day-to-day life, as nerve endings are usually destroyed in the affected areas.
Holding the Negligent Party Responsible for Your Burn Injury
When the full impact of your burn injury becomes apparent, your next step is to seek compensation from the at-fault party. That individual could range from the manufacturer of a defective part, to a hotel owner who didn’t install functioning smoke detectors, or even a drunk driver.
Regardless of who ultimately bears responsibility, that person or group of people must answer for their role in causing your burn injury. Working with a skilled attorney is the best way to recover compensation for how your burn injury impacted your life, such as:
- Chronic pain
- Disfigurement
- Medical costs stemming from the burn
- Loss of work after the accident and lost earning capacity in the future
- Non-economic damages covering embarrassment, loss of quality of life, and emotional anguish
- Rehabilitation and physical therapy
- Surgeries and other ongoing medical costs in the future
Receiving compensation for these costs requires having a professional investigate the accident to determine who is legally responsible for your injury. When someone had a basic duty of care to uphold but failed in that duty through negligent behavior, you have a legal right to seek a settlement or pursue a court case.
To protect those rights, get in touch with an attorney as soon as possible. Don’t wait to act, or you could run into problems with Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations on personal injury cases.
Find Out How Heslin Law Firm Can Help in Your Recovery
If you or a loved one were burned in an accident, you need to work with a lawyer who has the experience and knowledge necessary to protect your legal rights and find the best way to recover what you are owed. Personal injury cases are a focal point of our practice, and we want to help you after your accident. To set up a free consultation so we can hear about your injury, get in touch via our online form today.