A car crash can result in your receiving catastrophic injuries. Perhaps none of these is as painful or debilitating as a serious burn.
Stanford Health Care reports that you can actually receive the following three types of burns in a car crash
- Thermal burns if a fire ensues and its flames reach you, or even if the heat causes your vehicle’s internal surfaces to become hot enough to burn
- Electrical burns if your vehicle hits a downed power line or if one of its electrical wires touches you
- Chemical burns if you come into contact with one of your vehicle’s caustic liquids, such as gasoline, brake fluid, steering fluid or antifreeze
Burn seriousness
Not only can you receive all three types of burns in a car crash, but they likely will be serious due to your vehicle’s confined space. Health care professionals classify a burn’s seriousness as follows:
- First-degree burns that only singe your skin’s outermost layer, but do not invade your underlying tissues; sunburn is the prime example
- Second-degree burns that cause swelling, blistering and pain because they affect your skin’s second layer as well as its first
- Third-degree burns that go below your skin and into your muscles, nerves, ligaments, tendons and possibly even your bones
Never ignore any burn you receive in a car crash or otherwise. Just because you feel little or no pain does not mean that your burn is not serious. You may feel no pain because your nerve damage precludes your feeling it.
Also keep in mind that any burn that covers 15% of your body or more represents a catastrophic, life-endangering injury for which you need immediate medical attention.
