Suffering serious burn injuries can mean a long road to recovery, immense pain and suffering, and considerable medical bills. Regardless of how your burns occurred and what type you have, you may need to spend time in a special burn unit, which may further increase your overall medical expenses.
Dealing with those injuries and their aftermath can feel incredibly daunting. The financial strain may continue to increase, especially if you have deep burns or burns that cover a large percentage of your body, which may require long-term treatment.
If someone else’s negligence caused those injuries, you may have the right to compensation through a personal injury claim. The seasoned injury attorneys at Perenich Law Injury Attorneys can help. Contact us today to learn more about how a Tampa burn injury lawyer can help you.
Serious Burn Injuries in Tampa? Perenich Law Helps Burn Injury Victims Pursue Compensation
You have enough on your plate as you recover from serious burns. At Perenich Law Injury Attorneys, we aim to help Tampa victims recover the compensation they may deserve for those injuries. We stand as a voice for our clients when they may not have the capacity to speak for themselves, whether due to the extent of their injuries or their lack of knowledge of the legal system.
At Perenich Law, we provide extensive support for our clients as they pursue compensation for the injuries they sustained.
We investigate all the causes of your burn injuries.
Burns can occur for a variety of reasons. Friction burns may occur in auto or pedestrian accidents; chemical burns may occur on construction sites or as you work with dangerous chemicals in a laboratory environment. We help our clients determine all potential causes related to their burn injuries and pursue the compensation they deserve from the at-fault parties.
We make sure you know how much compensation you deserve.
During a burn injury claim, you have the right to claim compensation for all financial losses you sustained as a direct result of your injuries. Many burn injury victims, however, accept considerably less compensation than they really deserve for those injuries because an insurance company pressures them into taking a considerably lower settlement offer.
At Perenich Law Injury Attorneys, we work with our clients to ensure that they have broken down all the expenses they sustained as a direct result of their burns so that they can file a personal injury claim that includes all of those critical elements.
We help fight on our clients’ behalf.
At Perenich Law Injury Attorneys, we feel passionate about fighting for people that the system might otherwise leave behind. While insurance companies might try to take advantage of burn injury victims, including pressuring them to accept settlement offers that simply do not reflect their needs, we seek to help those victims as much as possible.
We take over interactions with the insurance company so that our clients do not have to worry about inadvertently accepting a low settlement offer or accepting liability for their injuries, reducing client stress and providing them with support at every stage of their claims.
Common Tampa Burn Injuries and Their Causes
Doctors usually grade burns according to a specific scale.
- First-degree burns affect the outer layer of the skin, also called the epidermis. Always seek medical care for first-degree burns after an accident someone else caused.
- Second-degree burns impact the epidermis and the dermis, the layer of skin beneath it. Generally, second-degree burns involve blisters and redness, including severe pain. Second-degree burns frequently leave scarring behind.
- Third-degree burns go below the skin and can involve substantial injury to nerves, muscles, and tissue. In some cases, third-degree burns may not hurt because nerve damage can interfere with pain signals. However, third-degree burns frequently involve a long recovery and severe scarring.
Burns can occur in several ways.
#1. Heat Burns
Most often, people think of heat burns when they consider types of burns. Heat burns occur from direct exposure to heat, including flame, hot objects, hot water, or steam.
#2. Chemical Burns
Chemical burns most often occur because of direct exposure to a dangerous chemical. In some cases, very caustic chemicals can cause burns even when the patient faces exposure through the air. Often, chemical burns result because of inadequate safety precautions around the use or disposal of those chemicals.
While some chemicals may stop burning once the person removes the direct exposure, in some cases, chemicals will continue burning until neutralized, which can cause further damage. Some chemical burns show up immediately after exposure, while others may take longer to fully show symptoms.
#3. Electrical Burns
Electrical burns usually result from exposure to electrical current. Electrical burns often arise from dangerous wires left exposed. People can also suffer burn injuries when they touch water or another liquid that conducts electricity without recognizing the electrical current running through it.
Electrical burns may appear like any other burn injury on the surface, but they often mean much more substantial damage internally. Unlike other burns, electrical burns do not stop with the initial exposure to the skin. Instead, they usually continue to move through the body, where they may cause immense organ and tissue damage.
#4. Friction Burns
Friction burns most often occur due to repeated scraping at the skin over time, or rough scraping across the skin at a high rate of speed. For example, road rash resulting from a severe bicycle, motorcycle, or pedestrian accident may present much like a severe burn. Friction burns strip away the protective skin that covers the body just like other types of burns. Friction burns may also have increased infection risk due to foreign matter in the wound.
#5. Radiation Burns
Tampa residents often become quite familiar with one common type of radiation burn: extreme sun exposure. Most of the time, sunburns occur because the patient spent too much time in the sun, often without sunscreen. Radiation burns can also result from other types of radiation exposure, including exposure during medical procedures.
#6. Cold Burns
Like heat burns, cold burns often occur from exposure to extreme temperatures. Cold burns, however, usually occur because of direct contact with a dangerous surface. Extreme cold can cause many of the same types of damage as extreme heat, and cause equally severe symptoms for the victim.
Who Bears Liability for Tampa Burn Injuries?
Burns can occur in a variety of scenarios. For example, a negligent landlord who fails to maintain a water heater, which ends up scalding a resident of that house, may bear liability for the patient’s injuries. You may suffer burns as part of a car accident, whether the car bursts into flame or you suffer friction burns due to getting dragged across the pavement.
To determine liability for Tampa burn injuries, at Perenich Law, our proactive attorneys look at several critical criteria.
Who bore a duty of care to you at the time of the incident?
If you trip and fall into a campfire while horsing around, you committed an act of negligence. On the other hand, if someone else built that fire, did not warn you about coals on the ground, and failed to put up an adequate barrier around it, that party might have violated a duty of care to you, leaving that party liable for your burn injuries. At Perenich Law, we start with a careful evaluation of what parties bore that vital duty of care to you at the time of the incident.
Who committed an act of negligence that violated that duty of care?
To establish grounds for a personal injury claim, you will typically need to show that the liable party violated that duty of care in some way that led to the incident and your injuries.
The negligent landlord above, for example, violated his duty of care to his renters by failing to take care of the faulty water heater. A construction company that fails to adequately dispose of dangerous chemicals used in the normal course of doing business may violate its duty of care to other residents and workers in the area.
How did that negligence contribute to your accident and your burns?
To file a Tampa burn injury claim, your lawyer will need to show that the liable party’s actions contributed in some way to your injuries. Suppose, for example, that you suffer injuries in a car accident. One of the vehicles bursts into flame, and you suffer burns before you can exit the vehicle. The liable party might have caused your injuries due to their involvement in the accident.
Furthermore, if the vehicle has a known defect that led to the fire, you may file a claim against the vehicle manufacturer that did not recall the vehicle or take other steps to protect that defect.
Breaking Down Compensation for Burn Injuries
After your accident, you may need as much compensation as possible for your injuries. Frequently, burns mean a long medical journey: a long stay in a burn unit, for example, as well as potential skin grafts and even physical therapy. You may have a lot of medical bills adding up and a lot of challenges ahead of you, both physical and financial.
At Perenich Law Injury Attorneys, our skilled Tampa lawyers cannot guarantee the compensation you will recover for your burns, but we can help you break down the expenses you have faced and the compensation you may deserve as a result.
Compensation for Your Medical Bills
Medical bills can grow exponentially following serious burns. You may have skin grafts, plastic surgery, physical therapy, and long hospital stays that you have to deal with, all while balancing follow-up appointments with your doctors and other care providers. Compensation for those medical costs may prove critical. Talk to your Tampa burn injury attorney about both your immediate medical costs and future medical procedures you may need to improve your appearance or mobility as you recover from your injuries.
Coverage for Lost Wages
Losing your income while you recover from your burns may mean a substantial financial blow. You may not have the capacity to work while you recover. Your burns might cause immense pain that prevents you from focusing, even if you otherwise have the physical capability to perform your job duties.
Furthermore, going back to work too early may prove a substantial risk, since you may expose yourself to environmental factors that may raise the risk of infection. Talk to your attorney about the time you have had to miss at work due to your burns and what compensation you might deserve.
Compensation for Pain and Suffering
Burns often cause immense pain. In fact, burns represent one of the most painful types of injuries you can suffer. As you recover from your burns, you may find yourself facing substantial limitations in your personal life and work life.
All of those types of suffering have an immense impact on your life, even if they do not have a direct financial component. As part of your burn injury claim, you can include compensation for those elements of the losses you had to deal with.
Do You Need a Tampa Burn Injury Attorney?
If you suffered severe burns due to another party’s negligence in Tampa, you may have the right to pursue a personal injury claim that will help you seek compensation for those injuries. Contact Perenich Law Injury Attorney today for your free consultation with a Tampa burn injury lawyer.
(727) 669-2828