People know to keep their delicate skin and eyes away from open flames to avoid serious burns. But it’s not always as easy to avoid breathing in toxic fumes or smoke when around a hazardous fire or harmful chemical.
You can’t go without oxygen for too long and eventually, you could be forced to breathe in substances that can do real damage to your lungs. Fires can be caused by careless acts by reckless drivers on a California freeway. Harsh chemicals and their fumes may also be accidentally left out at a store or in the workplace.
In many instances, a lung burn is caused by someone’s lack of care and at-fault parties need to be held accountable for the costs of recovery for victims for as long as that takes.
Schedule a Free Consultation with a California Lung Burn Injury Lawyer
If you or a loved one suffer a serious lung burn injury, please speak with a skilled California Burn Injury Lawyer before talking to any insurance representative. A traumatic injury to your lungs and the entire respiratory system can require long and intensive recovery. That care will also be expensive.
There’s an easy, no-risk way to determine how much support you’ll need in order to fully recover and regain your health. The next step would be to figure out who can be held responsible for your lung injury and the cost of the best care available. Contact Maison Law to schedule a no-obligation legal consultation and find out about every benefit that should be made available to you.
If you feel Maison Law can help you earn the maximum compensation available for your injury, you won’t need any money upfront. Our attorneys don’t get paid unless they win your case.
Lung Burn Injuries in California Accidents
Burns are incredibly damaging to the skin, and you can imagine how much more vulnerable the inside of your body and your organs are.
A fire started after a car crash might leave you breathing in smoke and hot air. A chemical left out at a place of business or used in the workplace could also leave you gasping for breath.
Medline Plus reports that over half of all fire-related deaths are from inhalation injuries.
These are just a few of the lung burn hazards any California resident could face:
- Smoke inhalation lung injuries. Breathing in smoke and particle pollution like soot or ash while exposed to a fire. California wildfires also leave people with lung damage.
- Thermal lung injuries. Breathing in superheated air that burns the soft tissue in the lungs and respiratory system. Victims may also breathe in scalding hot steam and suffer devastating injuries.
- Chemicals lung burns. Taking in the fumes from toxic chemicals or poisonous gases. Most of the damage caused by inhaling smoke from a fire is due to the chemicals in the smoke. Construction workers or farm workers can work with hazardous chemicals that could seriously damage the lungs. Employers should provide proper breathing protection and when they don’t, injured victims should seek full compensation.
- Carbon monoxide is a byproduct of fire and combustion, and this colorless gas can rob your lungs of oxygen. Products in our homes like a furnace or gas engines may emit this harmful gas and leave manufacturers liable for the injuries that result.
Lung Burn Injury Recovery
Burn damage to the respiratory system can cause a lung to collapse and respiratory failure is a real threat. Patients with other breathing issues can risk death after inhaling harmful air and receiving burn damage to the lungs.
The Mayo Clinic details how oxygen therapy is used to help patients with inhalation burns. Victims could have to carry oxygen tanks around for days, weeks, or months. Severely injured lung patients may need to be intubated. This procedure sends a tube down the throat to keep it from swelling shut.
A bronchoscopy procedure allows doctors to view the burn damage with a small scope inserted into the airways. This scope is also used to suction off secretions and debris causing breathing issues.
Any burn injury course of treatment can prove very expensive. An inhalation injury will likely require more than just a night in an emergency room to heal. Battling infections caused by burn wounds inside your chest would also contribute to hospital bills that almost no one could pay by themselves.
Victims may require months of oxygen therapy, and even lifelong care is a potential requirement if a permanent breathing disability is diagnosed. Allowing an insurance company to offer you a settlement check that doesn’t cover every cost you may face only leaves you paying for part of an accident that’s not your fault. Allow a California Burn Injury Lawyer to get the most out of a lung burn injury claim so that you and your family can focus on rebuilding your lives.
Compensation Available to California Lung Burn Injury Victims
After a traumatic injury involving a fire or chemical burn, victims may face years of carrying an oxygen tank everywhere they go. Breathing may never return to normal and victims may struggle simply to climb a set of stairs. Insurance companies for at-fault parties should never leave lung burn victims to suffer these hardships alone.
It’s critical to file a burn injury claim that documents every physical, emotional, and financial hardship you and your family have faced. Your California lung burn injury lawyer will help you list your damages and back each item with evidence.
Your lawyer will also include some factors you may not have known could earn you more in a burn injury settlement.
- Hospital and home medical care expenses.
- Estimates on future costs associated with a long-term lung injury or permanent physical disability. Coverage for the medical equipment needed and for potential home renovations to make victims more comfortable and give them more freedom.
- The physical pain and suffering you endure, perhaps with each labored breath.
- The emotional trauma you face in the accident and in recovery. A skilled California personal injury attorney will see that your emotional damages receive full consideration. Your difficult journey back to normal after an inhalation injury. The loss of enjoyment of life if you can’t return to the hobbies and family activities you love due to breathing restrictions.
- Income and benefits lost while you miss work during burn injury recovery.
- Wrongful death benefits. Families left behind after a fatal burn injury accident are permitted to seek support for burial costs and remaining medical bills. They should also expect financial help for the future when they’ll be without the guidance and income support a loved one can no longer provide.
Contact a California Lung Burn Injury Lawyer
If you or a loved one suffer a serious inhalation burn injury due to the careless actions of an individual or business, don’t allow an insurance company to determine what you should receive in compensation.
Insurance adjusters will be looking for ways to limit the support you receive, but you must demand fair compensation for each hardship you and your family have faced. A lung burn injury can have far-reaching consequences and the costs of care may extend over a lifetime.
Take advantage of a free case consultation from Martin Gasparian, the founder of Maison Law. This evaluation comes with no obligation to you or your family. We want to make sure you are treated fairly and receive the support you need to fully recover and get back to your normal life.
