Burns

[RacoonKing]

I have read that 3rd degree burns are painless but am unsure as to whether it is true or just another urban legend. I know it is supposed to be because of the damage of nerves to the point they can no longer confer pain.

I know this is slightly off the general topic of this forum but I was wondering if anyone here had any personal experience or knew someone who actually knew if this was true.

[zeocrash]

I don't have personal experience, but i took a first aid course this summer and they told me the same thing there.

++++++

I, I, I!

NBK

[nbk2000]

Third degree burns are painless.

BUT...the treatment is agonizing.

Skin grafts entail having a section of healthy skin sliced off with a large razor knife, and attached to your burned flesh...after they've cut and scrubbed off all the dead tissue, leaving your bare muscle tissue exposed.

Many a person has screamed for hours during these processes, and morphine doesn't help. :p

[TreverSlyFox]

Though 3rd degree burns are painless it is rare to only have a 3rd degree burn. Most burns radiate outward from 3rd degree at the center to 2nd degree and then to 1st degree. Cooling the burn area is very important to keep say a 1st degree from going to a 2nd degree. Even though you've removed the heat source the skin will keep burning until the residual heat balances in the skin.

Once you've got the skin cooled the next step is to keep contamination away, as burns infect quite quickly. On a large burn area the BEST method is to use NON-Mentholated Shaving Cream. It is clean, provides a protective barrier, keeps the burn moist, and is easy to wash off in the E-room. Any kind of "burn cream", butter, petroleum jelly will cause you pain when they scrub it off to assess the burn. Our ambulances carried 4 or 5 cans of NON-Metholated Shaving Cream for large burns and the cheap stuff works just as well as the expensive stuff.

[nbk2000]

Search for a copy of SIPRI's Incendiary Weapons, scanned by yours truly ;), that has great detail in the treatment of burns and (obviously) those caused by incendiary weapons.

[RacoonKing]

Thanks for all the info on the subject. I am glad to have that cleared up.

[Skean Dhu]

Also don't apply any burn or anti-bacterial creams to the burn until all of the residual heat is gone, beacuse the creams will act as a blanket and continue baking yourself.

[c.Tech]

Skin grafts entail having a section of healthy skin sliced off with a large razor knife, and attached to your burned flesh...after they've cut and scrubbed off all the dead tissue, leaving your bare muscle tissue exposed.


An interesting fact, at some hospitals or labs they have begun growing skin for burn treatment so they don’t have to cut it from another area of you.

Imagine having 1/5th of your body covered in 3rd degree burns, how much skin would need to be grafted to replace the burnt area?

Although if you had 1/5th of your body burnt there wouldn’t be a good chance of survival.

[pearlcrash911]

Although if you had 1/5th of your body burnt there wouldn’t be a good chance of survival.

Actually 1/5th of your body would not threaten your life as long as it is there is not an overwhelmingly large amount of second degree burns.

I personally know a man who was trapped in a burning garage, and survived after 90% of his body was burned.

[nbk2000]

Would you want to live after 90% of your flesh has been melted into something from a horror movie?

Oh, and the constant pain, the social rejection, the looking in a mirror and seeing a freak?

Not me...it'd be time to check out! :)

[Jacks Complete]

3rd degree burns don't hurt because they are deep enough to have burned away the pain sensors in the skin.

There should probably be a 0th degree burn now, for those new microwave pain/burn weapons that don't damage the skin but do cause all the pain of a burn until they are turned off. Of course, they turn up the power a bit and you get "real" physical burns.