As you can see for our example here, we have really a sample that includes all three types of the burns
we're gonna cover today for recognition and treatment.
In a bullseye formation, you'll see that the outward redness would be considered as a painful 1st degree burn.
In the next layer in, we're looking at a blister that has already been popped,
but blistered skin is most readily known as a 2nd degree burn.
If the blister is still intact, we're gonna leave it intact.
It's sterile, we want it to stay sterile and free from infectious bacteria.
And then the charred leathery, dry looking, center area, is most noted for its' texture
as a 3rd degree burn.
Because it is a full thickness burn, it can go all the way to the bone,
it usually does not hurt at the site of the 3rd degree burn,
but it's extremely painful in most cases, as the layers go out into second and first degree burn.
There's kind of a catch phrase for basic first aid, and that is:
Stop the burn, cool the burn, cover the burn.
Stop the burn.
If the person's clothes are on fire, the goal is to keep them from running panicked away.
We want to get the fire out.
We wanna try to remove any kind of smoldering clothing that is not stuck to the skin.
If we have any type of clothing, or any material, that is literally melted to the skin,
we're going to cool it in place, and leave it in place,
and allow the hospital to actually remove what has been adhered to the skin itself.
We don't want to pull it away, and take layers of protective flesh away, and cause more harm.
Once we have put out all of the fire, the goal is to get them to a place where we can cool the burn quickly.
It is recommended for first degree to cool it under water for an extended amount of time,
upwards of ten, twenty, or even thirty minutes, under cool running tap water.
That's for a first or a second degree burn.
It's also recommended for basic first aid, with third or full thickness burns, to cool it under tap water as well.
But let me just say, from a paramedics standpoint, the goal here is to cool the burn from active heating,
but then to keep it sterile.
We're going to, ideally if we have water gel, which is specifically designed
with a cooling property,
to be able to reduce the burning of this injury,
we want to drape that, it has convection properties, where it literally draws the heat,
the thermal heat out of the tissues, and evaporates them off into the atmosphere.
It is a phenomenal invention.
It's awesome to have it in your home, it's great to have it right in your first aid kit,
whether you're camping or at home or at work.
Sun burn is something we take for granted most of the time.
We just don't look at the sun as a potential radiation burn.
In fact, I've seen some patients of mine that have been so badly burnt by the sun,
they not only are suffering from signs of dehydration,
but they also have radiation sickness.
They run a fever.
They are very fatigued.
They are sick to their stomachs.
Let alone the actual secondary effect of the radiation burn,
which is an actual burn to the skin, damage to the skin,
first degree, painful, red,
second degree blisters.
Chemical burns.
Now, liquid chemical burns that are caustic can really cause a lot of damage,
not only to the skin, but to the eyes.
If it's on the skin, recommendations are that we flush the liquid off the skin,
or off our body parts, take any contaminated clothing off,
and continue to dilute that for at least fifteen minutes, and waiting until help arrives
if it's a serious burn.
The second one is when it's in the eyes.
The important thing here is to follow the recommendations if it's a household item.
But one good rule of thumb, and common treatment, is to make sure that we begin to rinse the eyes out
as soon as possible when exposed to a chemical in the eye.
A good thing to remember is that if you have contacts in the eye, to get the contacts out as fast as possible.
Throw them away, put them aside, it doesn't matter,
but once they're exposed to the chemical, we're not going to reuse those contacts.
The goal here is to not cross contaminate the eyes.
If you have a chemical in one eye, make sure that you rinse the eye so that the chemical
goes away from the other eye, not towards it.
So make sure to tilt your face in a way where the water will go in,
but not cross contaminate to the non-effected eye.
If both eyes are effected, rinse them both equally for at least fifteen minutes or more,
or until help arrives.
We sometimes also take for granted, natural storms.
It's going to be important that you prevent electrocutions by knowing some simple tips.
Number one, stay away from trees and other conductive material during thunderstorms.
If you feel static electricity during a thunderstorm, and you're in a high area,
or an area where you believe that lightning could strike,
one common teaching is that you will kneel down as low as you can,
and roll up onto the balls of your toes as best you can.
This is a way to keep as little contact with the ground as possible,
and hopefully redirect the electricity from the lightning to another object,
not to yourself.
Electrocution.
This could be through a cord, this could be through an appliance.
But either way, it can leave an entrance wound and an exit wound.
The entrance wound is usually pretty direct.
The electricity went in, went through the body, and exited out of the body.
You could have a burn in both locations.
But if the energy level is high enough, the exit wound could actually have an explosive traumatic effect.
You're going to treat that like a trauma,
and treat it according to basic first aid recommendations for your region and location.
Now you're going to treat the burn the same way we just talked about,
but one thing to keep in mind with electrical burns is that it effects everything that the electricity has passed by.
So if electricity went in this hand, and went out the other foot, you can kind of gauge that the electricity
actually went through the torso of the body, and may actually be effecting the heart.
Now this symptom may not even show up for the first twenty-four hours after an electrocution.
So it's always a good idea, that, even if the person who was electrocuted feels fine,
they go into the hospital to be evaluated,
to make sure that they're well monitored and taken care of.