A relatively recent report sheds some interesting light on burn injuries that happen both in and around Houma, Louisiana, and in other parts of the country.
What should be of particular interest to Louisiana residents is that the South was the region with the highest rate of significant burn injuries, classified as those requiring a hospital stay or a trip to the emergency room. The report also showed that people in rural, low-income areas also had a higher rate of burn injuries.
Sadly, it also seems that the people most often victimized by burn injuries were infants less than one year old and elderly adults. Slightly older children and young adults seemed less prone to burn injuries.
The most common type of burn injury that merited a hospital visit was a second-degree burn. Most commonly, the cause of the burn was scalding or some other burn from a hot liquid or steam. In most cases, burns to the foot and lower leg merited a hospital stay, while burns to the hand were those most often treated in the emergency room.
It is telling that, according to this report, wounds related to burns required longer hospital stays and were more expensive, about double the costs, over other types of injuries. This information only serves to reinforce the point that burn victims likely will require a lot of financial and emotional support in aid of their recovery.
While no amount of money can undo a burn, it is only fair that if someone else was responsible for an injury, that person or business should pay compensation so that the victim can be made as whole as possible after what is often an emotionally and physically painful injury.