How not to be a Sucky Patient (Long and Ranty)

[Sapphire Silk]

I once had a patient who put butter on burns on her hands after falling into a campfire.

She ended up with crispy fried hands. The fat heats from the burn (which continues even after you remove the tissue from the heat source), causing more burns.

[Seshat]

The fat heats from the burn (which continues even after you remove the tissue from the heat source), causing more burns.

The physics of a burn injury:

Heat enters the body tissues (skin, fat layer under skin, muscle layer if you're unlucky, bone layer if you're REALLY unlucky).

You remove the body tissues from the heat source.

The heat is STILL THERE, still cooking your body.

Physics of burn treatments:

If the skin is unbroken: lukewarm to cold (but not icy!) running water will draw the heat out of the tissues, stopping the cooking process. Once the heat is removed from ALL the tissue (not just the surface tissue), you have stopped the burn and can start treating the actual injured tissue.

If the skin is broken, running water or standing water can cause infection. In a severe burn, it can actually remove tissue. Remove the patient from the heat source (if you can do so without injuring yourself) and call emergency. The dispatcher will send experts, and might have instructions for what you can do in the interim.

If you ice a burn, you replace sudden intense heat with sudden intense cold. The heat is drawn from the immediate area of the ice so rapidly it further injures the injured skin.


BTW: because burns are so susceptible to infection, don't break a burn blister unless advised to by a medical professional.