Burn Injury Lawyer in Williamsport, PA

BURNS CAN CREATE HORRIFIC INJURIES, PAIN AND DISFIGUREMENT, AND, IN SEVERE CASES, THESE INJURIES CAN KILL.

The skin is the body’s largest organ‚ and it can be severely compromised by burns, resulting in pain‚ swelling‚ redness‚ blistering‚ scarring‚ infection‚ and possibly death. The American Burn Association reports that about 1.1 million burn injuries require medical attention each year; 45,000 of those injuries require hospitalization; and approximately 4,500 of these people die every year.

Those who recover from severe burn injuries are faced with high medical bills‚ loss of income‚ long-term pain and suffering‚ disfigurement, and changes to lifestyle and well-being.

Burn injuries are expensive to treat, not only because of hospitalization and doctor costs, but because they may require repeated care for reconstruction and rehabilitation, skin grafts, and therapy or counseling to cope with any disfigurement. If you or a loved one has suffered a burn injury from an accident due to someone’s negligence or because of product defects, you are entitled to compensation.

Contact an experienced burn injury lawyer at Rieders, Travis, Humphrey, Waters & Dohrmann. We offer a free consultation to examine your individual situation and to help you receive compensation for the long-standing expenses you will incur from burns.

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Types of Burn Injuries

Burns to the skin can be caused by fires‚ flammable liquids and gases‚ hot liquid or steam‚ or by chemicals, and are usually categorized into four main types:

Thermal burns – caused by contact with flames, steam, hot liquids, or other sources of intense heat
Light burns – caused by contact with sunlight or sources of ultraviolet light
Chemical burns – caused by contact with an acid or alkali
Radiation burns – caused by contact with nuclear radiation or ultraviolet light.

Common accidents that cause burns are car accidents, house or workplace fires and explosions, and defective products. The most common causes of serious burn injuries are flames and scalding.

Common Causes of Burn Injuries

People suffer burn injuries in many different settings. Though they are most common in our homes, they can also happen on our roads and in our workplaces. The cause of your burn injury will determine what type of personal injury claim you might file. For example, a burn caused by a landlord’s negligence is most likely a premises liability claim, while a burn suffered in a car crash will be a vehicle accident personal injury claim.

Common accidents that cause burns are:

Car accidents
Home fires
Workplace fires, explosions, and spills
Explosions involving defective products
Water heaters set to dangerously high temperatures.

All of the above causes have something important in common: They are all preventable events. These incidents should never happen, and they are almost always caused by human error in one form or another. If that error stemmed from negligence, the at-fault party should be held accountable.

Contact Rieders, Travis, Humphrey, Waters & Dohrmann to schedule a free consultation with an experienced burn injury lawyer.

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If you or a loved one has suffered burns from an accident that was not your fault, the experienced Williamsport burn injury attorneys of Rieders, Travis, Humphrey, Waters & Dohrmann can help you get the compensation you deserve. If someone has suffered a wrongful death as a result of a burn injury, we can help family members seek compensation for the loss of love, comfort, companionship and financial support.

We offer personal attention and loyalty to every client, aggressively fighting for their rights whether in settlement negotiations or pursuing a favorable trial verdict. With our size-able staff, we provide strength in numbers and top-notch personal service to answer questions, gather evidence, handle your paperwork and medical bills, and deal with insurance companies. Rieders, Travis, Humphrey, Waters & Dohrmann will invest all our resources to build a persuasive case on your behalf.

Do not delay. If you or your loved one has been involved in a burn injury, your next step should be to contact a Williamsport PA burn injury lawyer by calling (570) 323-8711 or by using our online contact form. Based in Williamsport, we serve clients throughout the state of Pennsylvania, offering a free consultation on all injury matters. More than that, we offer you experience, knowledge, compassion, and a long history of results.

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Treatments for Burn Injury

A burn covering 30 percent of the body can cost as much as $200,000 in initial hospitalization costs and physician fees, and more extensive burns add costs for reconstruction and rehabilitation. Generally, older adults and children will need to be hospitalized for second degree burns that cover more than 15% of their total body surface.

Fortunately, there have been medical advances in resuscitation practices, wound cleaning and follow-up care, nutritional support, grafting techniques and materials, and infection control, and these have greatly increased survivability. But survival often necessitates long-term follow-up care.

Treatment for burn injuries includes:

Skin grafts – removing skin from one area of the body and transferring it to the burned area. Grafts from skin banks are sometimes used temporarily to cover and to protect against infection, reduce pain, reduce fluid loss, and allow the tissues underneath to heal.
Dermabrasion or derma-planing – can smooth scars by resurfacing the skin’s top layers through surgical scraping.
Skin substitutes, or cultured skin – involve growing a patient’s skin in the laboratory, and expanding it to help cover the injury.
Medication – varies depending on the severity and location of the burn. Medications differ for thermal, electrical and chemical burns, as electrical burns need hydration while thermal burns need analgesics and topical antibiotics. Chemical burns are often treated with topical antibiotics, calcium and magnesium salts. Larger and deeper second-degree burns may require narcotic pain medication.

Reconstructive surgery
Rehabilitation of affected parts and physical therapy
Occupational therapy
Emotional counseling – for dealing with the pain, disfigurement, and change in life style.

Burn injuries to eyelids, hands, feet, and groin may require assisted living arrangements until the injury begins to heal. Also, burn injuries may worsen several conditions, including diabetes, kidney failure, congestive heart failure, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Because treatment is so expensive and may go for long periods of time, burn injury victims should seek legal counsel to determine if they are entitled to compensation to cover medical and treatment costs, plus pain and suffering.

Categories of Burn Injuries

Burns are categorized into three categories‚ according to their severity:

First-degree burns damage only the outer layer of skin. The result is usually reddened skin that heals in about a week.
Second-degree burns damage the first two layers of skin. These burns are characterized by deep reddening of the skin, pain, blisters, glossy appearance from leaking fluid, and possible loss of some skin.
Third-degree burns involve damage to all of the layers of skin‚ plus the tissues below the surface of the skin. This level of burn is serious‚ and may include complications such as infection and death. This type of burn produces a white or black dry wound, followed by permanent scarring.

How Much Does a Burn Injury Lawyer Cost?

The burn injury attorneys at Rieders, Travis, Humphrey, Waters & Dohrmann work on a contingency fee basis, which means that you pay us no fee unless we win your case. People coping with the fallout of a serious burn injury are already facing an incredible challenge. They shouldn’t have to worry about the financial impact of a legal claim, too.

We know that our team will do everything possible to get our clients the compensation and care they deserve. We also want our clients to know that they won’t be burdened financially if their claim is unsuccessful. These are the reasons we work on contingency fee.

Our consultations are free, so you will be out no cost should you decide to meet with our team and explore your legal options.

Finding Out Who is Responsible

Our attorneys will investigate the circumstances surrounding your injury to determine who was responsible. In some cases, the at-fault party is obvious. In others, investigations reveal surprising facts that lead us to name additional parties in a lawsuit. Let’s look at a hypothetical case to get a better understanding of liability in burn injury cases.

A tenant suffers a serious scalding injury in his apartment because the water in his shower is set too high. The tenant believes that his landlord is solely responsible for his injuries. However, after the tenant’s attorney investigates the facts of the case, he finds out that a company was hired to install new water heaters, and they failed to properly set the temperature of the water. The landlord might still be partially responsible, but another party – the company that installed the device – is also responsible for the injuries the tenant suffered.

Every case has its own set of circumstances that deserves scrutiny. It’s very important to name all responsible parties to ensure that a client has the best chance at getting compensation that reflects the damages they’ve suffered.

At Rieders, Travis, Humphrey, Waters & Dohrmann, we will get to the bottom of what and who caused your injuries, so you can be sure that the at-fault parties and their insurance companies give you the payment you need.

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