One of the complications of severe burns (second and third degree burns) is bed sores. Bed sores which are also called pressure ulcers, pressure sores and decubitus ulcers are injury to the body tissues resulting from the compression of these tissues between two hard surfaces such as the bed mattress and other body parts like bones.
Risk factors for bed sores:
Treatment of sleep disturbance associated with severe burns:
Treatment may not be easy, there are different types of treatment strategies. Your physician or the burn team may ask you questions regarding your sleep habits in the past and factors that affect your sleep. Factors that affect the treatment type are:
Severe burns such as second degree burns and third degree burns can affect any aspect of the patient’s life, one of these aspects is sleep. Sleep disturbance can happen in any stage of burn injury but it’s common immediately after the burn, in the healing process and in the recovery process. About half of the patients who are affected by severe burns suffer from sleep problems and the most common is insomnia. Insomnia can present as difficulty in falling asleep, staying asleep, waking up too early in the morning, nightmares and poor quality sleep.
Many causes can lead to sleep disturbance following a burn injury and some of which may have a long lasting effect even after the patient being discharged home.
These causes may include:
Is a governmental agency that investigates and responds to any case of potential child abuse or neglect. Its purpose is to ensure that children are safe and to prevent any further abuse or neglect by the parents or the legal caregivers. CPS also helps families to get the services needed to guarantee a safe and a healthy home. CPS protects children from physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect by the parents or the legal caregivers.
A suspected case of child abuse or neglect must be reported. Anyone can report a case of child abuse or neglect but professions who have regular contact with children like hospital personnel, teachers, social workers, and police are required to report suspected cases of child abuse or neglect by New York state law. The person who reports a case doesn’t need to have any evidence of child abuse or neglect. A suspicion to a reasonable degree based on behaviors, observation and other information is enough to make a report. The 24 hour New York State Central Register number is 1-800-342-3720. When calling the person will be asked specific information and the report will be accepted if the information provided meets the legal criteria for child abuse or neglect. Depending on the county that the family lives in, the report will be given to the CPS in that area.
The CPS will assign a caseworker to meet the family and assess the situation to determine if there is child abuse or neglect and the steps required to deal with it if there is a case.
Steven Johnson Syndrome is a systemic allergic reaction that has high morbidty and can lead to death in severe cases. It is charactarized by the appearance of rash on the skin and the mucous membrane. This syndrome can affect the eye, respiratory and nasal tracts, vagina and the urethra.
What are the complications of Steven Johnson Syndrome:
Steven Johnson Syndrome may affect any organ in the body. Some are serious and may even lead to death. Complications may include:
Steven Johnson Syndrome is a systemic allergic reaction that has high morbidty and can lead to death in severe cases. It is charactarized by the appearance of rash on the skin and the mucous membrane. This syndrome can affect the eye, respiratory and nasal tracts, vagina and the urethra.
Causes: Steven Johnson Syndrome can be idiopathic (no known cause) or as a result of an immunological reaction to immunologic stimuli that can be diseases, drugs or infections, among these stimuli are:
A- Infections and diseases: They may include
The following is a first-hand account of a survivor of severe burns, as told to CNN.com. This story should give hope to all victims of severe burns that they can overcome their injuries, and lead a productive and happy life.
“I came to America as a transfer student in the fall of 2004. I did three years of computer engineering in India and then transferred to Purdue University Calumet. On July 2, 2005, just a month before graduation, a man who lived on the first floor of my apartment building set fire to his own apartment deliberately.
The fire started at 4:30 a.m. My roommate and I could not jump out, because the balcony and windows were engulfed in flames. As my roommate fell unconscious in front of me, I started running down the stairs but I also passed out from smoke inhalation. A firefighter found my body a few minutes later and pulled me out of the building.
In late May, a man in Aurora, CO filed a lawsuit against Arby’s restaurants after he said he suffered severe burns from steam or very hot water that sprayed from a urinal in the men’s room at a local restaurant. The incident allegedly happened two years ago at the Arby’s in Monument, CO, but the man filed the lawsuit just recently.
Kenneth Dejoie claims his genitals suffered severe burns while he was using a urinal inside the Arby’s men’s room. The five-page lawsuit was filed in El Paso County District Court, and states that Dejoie was “using the urinal in the men’s restroom when the urinal caused a jet of steam to shoot forth and burn his genitals.”
Dejoie claims that he reported the incident to an employee who said, “we have that bathroom problem again” and that “this happens when the sink in the kitchen is running.”
More than five million Jeep vehicles are being investigated by the federal government for deadly fuel-tank fires caused by rear-impact collisions.
Fuel-tank ruptures and fires during crashes have resulted in 48 fatalities in the Jeep Grand Cherokee model since 1993, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. However, to this point neither the federal government nor Chrysler has announced a recall for specific model years.
And this week, the NHTSA expanded its investigation to include Jeep Cherokees from model years 1993 to 2001 and Jeep Liberty models from 2002 to 2007.
In mid June, hundreds of frightened residents were evacuated from a multi-story apartment building when smoke filled their apartments from a simple stove fire that grew out of control. The fire spread so quickly that flames leaped up three floors of the large building in the town of Hempstead, N.Y.
Witnesses recalled seeing residents of the Fulton Manor apartment building with their heads out open windows, screaming for help, before firefighters came to their aid in high-rise ladder buckets. The firefighters pulled more than a dozen people out of their windows to safety. Some of the residents were becoming so overcome by smoke that they were yelling that they were going to jump from their windows.
About 30 people were treated at hospitals for smoke inhalation after they were evacuated from the seven-story building. The cause of the fire was a stove malfunction in an apartment on the second floor. The fire spread quickly to the walls of that apartment, and created a lot of smoke containing deadly carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide.
