- If your friends dare you to jump over the bonfire
or whatever you think it's cool and funny at midnight,
after you throw thrown a few back don't do it.
(gentle music) (heart beating)
You just got burned.
There are many types of emotional burns,
like roasting your friend at his retirement party
or say embarrassing your daughter in front of her prom date.
But in the medical world we're talking about
real deal burns today.
What do you do?
What do you put on then?
And how do I know if it's serious?
We're going to go over all your
immediate burn questions and more.
Hey there, I'm Dr. Jordan Wagner.
I'm a board certified emergency medicine physician.
My mission is to make videos
and answer your urgent medical questions
and clear up myths about various diseases and illnesses.
If you've turned on your TV lately
you've probably seen wildfires raging throughout California
and with fires as it relates to what I do in my world
in the ER, typically comes the topic of burns.
Over a million people in the US with burns
come to the emergency department each year.
Burns are no joke.
They range from minimal injury all the way to death.
Here are five major groups or classifications of burns
based on their mechanism of injury
or how you actually get burned.
Thermal burns, contact burns, chemical burns,
radiation burns, or electrical burns.
Today we're only going to talk about thermal burns.
So what is a thermal burn?
Anything that gets you hot and bothered
and not in a sexual way.
Thermal burns are caused by heat.
You can get a thermal burn a couple different ways,
with the two main being a scald burn
which are injuries that are caused by hot liquids,
grease, or steam, or a fire burn,
AKA injuries that occur either by flash or flame burns.
Immediately if you can get away
from whatever is causing or has caused the burn
in the first place and get to a safe place.
From there remove any hot substance as quick as possible.
Be it water, grease, or oil,
and remove the clothing that is either obviously
on fire or covered with the hot liquid.
Do not put on any home remedy, neighbor made remedy,
Pinterest made, maybe it might work type of questionable
remedy on your wound.
Do however, put a cool compress or ice on the burn.
This may help soothe the area and numb the pain.
Once the burn has happened,
unfortunately the damage has already occurred.
When do you go to the emergency department
for your thermal burns?
If you are in severe pain
or you think you might've had a second,
third, or fourth degree burn go to the ER.
Also, if the burn is anywhere on your head,
face, ears, neck, hands, feet, or any large areas of burn
or you experience any shortness of breath or chest pain
or any of your burns that go completely around come
to the emergency department.
Who are at high risk for thermal burn injuries?
People of all ages are susceptible to minor burns
but the highest incidents of burns
occurs during the first years of life
and in persons aged 20 to 29 years old with 67%
of serious burn injuries occurring mostly in males.
So doctor's advice, if your friends dare you to jump
over the bonfire or whatever you think is cool
and funny at midnight, after you've thrown a few back,
don't do it.
In all seriousness, if you or someone you know
has been physically burned the quicker and the better
you respond to a burn accident
greatly reduces the magnitude of the injury.
Can you die from a thermal burn?
Yes, you can.
Burn patient survival rate is also related to age,
presence of inhalation injuries, other injuries,
and burn depth.
What is burn depth?
The depth of the burn injury is classified according
to degrees or the differences between first,
second, third, or even fourth degree burns.
In first degree burns minor superficial damage
of the top layer of the skin occurs.
Redness, tenderness, and pain are the hallmarks
of this type of injury.
Blistering does not normally occur.
Most common causes of first degree burns
are flash burns or sunburns.
What is the treatment for first degree burn?
Number one, cool the burn down.
Immediately immerse the burn in cool tap water,
and apply cool or wet compresses.
Second, apply petroleum jelly two or three times a day.
Do not apply ointments, paste,
or butter to the burns as these may
cause an infection.
Do not apply topical antibiotics.
Number three cover the burn with
a non-stick sterile bandage.
If blisters form let them heal on their own
while keeping the area covered, do not pop the blisters.
Number four, considering taking over the counter
pain medication such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen
which can help relieve pain and reduce inflammation.
And number five, protect the area from the sun
will help minimize scarring as the redness from a burn
sometimes persist for weeks
especially in those with dark skin tones.
Typically a first degree burn takes about a week to heal.
Second degree burns.
Second degree burns have two types.
Superficial second versus deep second degree burns.
Both burns will hurt and blister.
What is the treatment for a second degree burn?
Second degree burns, well,
let's repeat the same steps that we had
for the first degree burns.
(tape rewinding)
But in addition if blisters do come off
or you have exposed areas of skin,
those areas need to have a topical over the counter
antibiotic applied to that area.
Also keep this burn area covered and do not let it dry out.
If the wound dries out, it won't heal well.
Second degree burns typically will take
three to six weeks to heal.
If you do you require a skin graft
for your deep second degree burn
this will take a lot longer to heal.
Third degree burns.
Third degree burns are what we call full thickness
burns that go all the way through all the layers
of your skin and singe and burn all the blood supply
and nerve endings to the skin,
which results in it typically not hurting as bad,
which is not good.
The burned skin of a third degree burn has
a white leathery appearance.
Skin grafting always
necessary to resurface the effected area.
Immersion scalds, flame burns, chemical burns,
and high voltage electrical burns typically
cause third degree burns.
What is a treatment for a third degree burn?
If you think you've had a third degree burn
get to the hospital immediately
and remove anything that still might be burning.
Third degree burns will need a skin graft.
Skin grafts are either partial thickness
or full thickness depending
on what the surgeon thinks is necessary.
Donor skin is usually from your own thigh, buttocks, back,
upper arms, forearms, or even abdominal wall.
And this type of injury can take weeks
to years to heal with ongoing care.
Lastly, fourth degree burns,
the most serious and very bad cases of all burns.
Fourth degree burns cause both thickness destruction
of the skin and the subcutaneous tissue with the involvement
of the underlying fascia, muscles, bones,
and other structures.
Other things to consider.
We are talking about burn case injuries specifically,
but in cases where I see patients from structural fires
or wildfires many will show up with only moderate burns,
less than 40% of their total body surface area
but will actually die
of asphyxiation or carbon monoxide poisoning
before they even reach the hospital.
This smoke inhalation can cause both lung damage
or other toxic poisonings,
which may have life-threatening consequences.
Alright.
I hope I've cleared up some questions you may have had
surrounding what to do if you get burned.
Make sure you leave me a comment on what other
medical topics you'd like me to break down.
And if you want me to discuss further the complications
of carbon monoxide poisoning
or even cyanide poison that can occur
from house fires, let me know.
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Thank you so much for watching.
Stay healthy my friends.