The skin is the human body’s largest organ, performing critical functions that are essential to our well-being. It shields us from heat, light, infection, and injury, regulates our body temperature, stores water and fat, and conveys pivotal sensory information that allows us to evade harm.

But as central as the skin is to our existence, it is also quite fragile, susceptible to contusions, lacerations, and, perhaps worst of all, burns. About 486,000 Americans are treated for burn injuries and about 3,400 die from them each year. Even with the best medical care, the consequences of a burn injury can be catastrophic for most Indiana families.

To increase your chances of receiving full and fair compensation following a burn accident, get in touch with the Indiana burn injury layers at Hensley Legal Group, who are committed to getting justice for the everyday people of Indiana.

Call us at (317) 472-3333, chat with us online, or fill out our contact form to schedule a free consultation with one of our Indiana burn injury lawyers.

Types of Burn Injuries

Burn injuries can take many forms, though they may be categorized by their severity and origin.

The severity of a burn is measured in degrees – first, second, or third – which are ranked in ascending order by how deeply the burn penetrates the skin’s surface:

● First-degree burns – Because they only affect the outer layer of the skin (the epidermis), first-degree burns are considered “superficial.” A first-degree burn site may be red and painful, but it is normally dry, without blisters, and unlikely to produce long-term tissue damage other than a change in skin color.

● Second-degree burns – These are “partial thickness” burns that involve the epidermis and the next layer of skin (the dermis). Second-degree burn sites could be red, painful, blistered, and swollen.

● Third-degree burns – ‘Full thickness” or third-degree burns destroy both the epidermis and the dermis while damaging the underlying muscles, tendons, or bones. (If the muscles, tendons, or bones are burned as well, the burn may be described as “fourth-degree.”) A third-degree burn site will appear white or charred and lack feeling because the nerve endings have been destroyed.

In addition to being grouped by severity, burn injuries can be classified according to the origin of the burn:

● Thermal burns – These are burn injuries from heat sources that raise skin temperature and char or kill tissue cells. Thermal burns happen when the skin is exposed to flames, hot metals, scalding liquids, or steam.

● Electrical burns – These burns occur because of contact with either alternating or direct electrical current.

● Chemical burns – The skin or eyes can be burned by strong acids, alkalies, solvents, or detergents.

● Radiation burns – Burns of this nature come from prolonged exposure to the ultraviolet rays of the sun or other sources of radiation like X-rays.

No matter what burn injury you have, Hensley’s Indiana burn injury attorneys are ready to advise you of the next steps to take if you are contemplating a case.

Major Complications Can Develop From Burn Injuries

As if the immediate effects of a burn injury weren’t bad enough, major complications can develop that may last for years or even decades to come, including:

● Infections – Burns break down the skin, making it easier for bacteria to infiltrate the bloodstream (an infection known as sepsis) then travel through the rest of the body.

● Weakened respiration – Breathing can become compromised when the respiratory pathways are narrowed by scar tissue in the lungs.

● Hypothermia – Burned skin may lose its ability to regulate heat and cold, causing a perilously low drop in body temperature.

● Dehydration – Skin holds in the moisture needed for adequate hydration and continuous blood flow, and the body can lose fluids when broad swaths of the skin are burned. Dehydration may lead to urinary complications, kidney failure, electrolyte loss, seizures, and a potentially fatal decline in blood pressure and oxygen levels secondary to low blood volume (hypovolemia).

● Scarring – Even when a burn injury heals, it can leave behind significant scars. Not only can scarring affect your appearance, scar tissue can impair your bones and joints when it contracts and causes the muscles, skin, or tendons to tighten.

● Psychological illnesses – A burn injury can impact the mind as profoundly as the body, especially when there is facial disfigurement, chronic pain, or permanent disability. Patients forced to deal with such grave conditions may come to experience depression, anxiety, nightmares, flashbacks, suicidal ideation, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Our Indiana burn injury lawyers will work tirelessly to ensure that every aspect of your burn accident is taken into account.

Common Causes of Indiana Burn Injuries

A burn injury may happen in any number of ways, though financial recovery may only be available when someone else is at fault. Compensable Indiana burn injuries may be caused by:

● Motor vehicle collisions

● Construction and industrial accidents

● Malfunctioning products

● Fires and explosions

● Chemical reactions

● Exposure to hot liquids

● Abuse or neglect

Who Is Liable for an Indiana Burn Injury?

The events leading up to a burn injury will determine who is liable for it. For example, if you are burned in an automotive accident, the driver who causes that accident may be at fault, along with the owner of his or her vehicle (if different from the driver). If the vehicle is being used for commercial purposes, the individual or entity for whose business it is being used may share blame (if separate from the owner). Outside parties may bear responsibility too, such as a public works department if a substandard road contributes to a crash.

When a burn injury occurs in an accident on a construction site, the culpable parties may include the property owner and/or the developer, the general contractor in charge of the project, the contractors hired by the general contractor, or the subcontractors hired by them.

If your burn injury is the result of negligence on somebody else’s property, a premises liability claim could be initiated against the property owner. For your case to be viable, you will need to prove that:

● The property owner owed you a duty to exercise reasonable care to maintain safe conditions on the premises;

● The owner breached this duty by not keeping the premises safe; and

● This breach of duty caused you injury.

Premises liability plaintiffs typically prevail when they show that a property owner caused an accident by failing to:

● Inspect the premises for hazards;

● Repair known hazards on the premises; or

● Warn about the presence of hazards.

Alternatively, if you are burned by a product that becomes dangerously hot, catches fire, or explodes, a product liability claim could be pursued against the manufacturer, distributor, or retailer of that product, usually by alleging one of three kinds of negligence:

● Design defects – The product was unsafe from its conception.

● Manufacturing defects – The product had a safe design but was produced in a way that made it unsafe.

● Warning defects – The unsafe elements of an otherwise safe product were not adequately explained.

Moreover, there could be a product liability claim when a defective good or component part causes an incident in which you get burned, like a car crash, a construction accident, or a structural fire.

No matter what type of burn injury case you pursue, you have a brief window in which to act, known as the Statute of Limitations. The Statute is two years for most burn injuries in Indiana, though it can be shorter for cases against government entities. If you fail to file a lawsuit or resolve a claim before the Statute elapses, you could be forever barred from doing so.

Hensley Legal Group will meet every regulatory deadline and requirement for your Indiana burn injury claim.

What Our Indiana Burn Injury Attorneys Will Do for You

A burn injury can transform your life into an unending series of surgeries, skin grafts, and procedures at escalating expense, often while you are incapable of working and struggling to cope with the fallout of extensive scarring on highly exposed areas of your body.

In a crisis as harrowing as this, you certainly need attorneys with the skill and wisdom to meet the legal challenges ahead. But even more importantly, you need attorneys with the warmth and compassion to meet the emotional challenges too, attorneys who will treat you like a member of the family, not a dollar amount on a balance sheet. You need the Indiana burn injury attorneys at Hensley Legal Group.

Since 1998, we have devoted our practice to helping clients just like you, honest Hoosiers who have been hurt through no fault of their own. No task is too daunting or adversary too intimidating to stop us from getting you what you deserve.

If you decide to hire Hensley, we will unearth the root causes of your burn injury and everyone responsible for it with the time allotted by law. If evidence of wrongdoing exists, our Indiana burn injury lawyers will move quickly to secure it, taking legal action to prevent its destruction if the situation demands it.

After we have put together an airtight case against every defendant, we will attempt to negotiate a settlement that reflects all of your losses, including:

● Medical bills

● Lost income

● Pain and suffering

● Disability or disfigurement

● Mental anguish

● Punitive and wrongful death damages (if applicable)

And if we do not receive an offer that is worthy of your claim, we are more than willing to go to trial for a verdict that is, unlike many of our competitors, who rarely, if ever, step foot inside a courtroom.

You Won’t Pay Until We Win

You may be worried about agreeing to more expenditures at this moment, but you should know that our firm works on a contingency basis, so you won’t have to pay us anything until our Indiana burn injury attorneys win your case.

Let Hensley shoulder all the burdens and assume all the risks involved in making you whole again.

Reach Out to Our Indiana Burn Injury Lawyers

Hensley Legal Group has been fighting for the innocent victims of negligence for over 25 years. If you have been wrongfully injured, reach out to our Indiana burn injury lawyers to explore your legal remedies.

You can arrange a no-cost case review with a knowledgeable Indiana burn injury attorney today by calling us at (317) 472-3333, chatting with us online, or filling out our contact form.