Severe Burns Question

Enc · March 2011

For something I am writing, I need to know some info on burns and duration/lasting effects. While I've found a ton of info online about causes and immediate wounds, what I'm looking for is the long term damage info which is strangely not present.

If someone were severely scalded by boiling water falling on them, what would the lasting physical visible and internal damages be? Would they be scarred years later, or would their skin eventually heal? Would they lose sensation in those areas, or any other side effects from the scalding?

Any info would be helpful. I have a character I have to write with and all I know is that she had a boiling tank rupture on her as her physical description.

Skoal Cat · March 2011

My childhood friend had hot coffee spilled on him when he was a little one. He has a lifelong permanent scar from it on his arm. Its in a weird abstract shape and isn't a bizarre color, just a bit lighter than the rest of his skin. Young bodies also heal really well. The older you are the worse the scar will probably be.
Really bad burns can certainly cause nerve damage.

bowen · March 2011

Yeah burns tend to look like your normal skin tone, just more leathery (I guess that would be the term I'd use to describe it). Your character would probably be badly disfigured depending on the size of the tank. Damage from the shrapnel from the tank itself, and boiling tanks are under pressure so the water is probably extremely hot. Think The Man Without a Face.

Enc · March 2011

Would that be true with a Rennesance era brewery boiling tank? From what I understand it would be heater by fire, rather than pressure (not really sure, though).

This setting and character are a pain in the ass to research. : /

schuss · March 2011

Enc wrote: »

For something I am writing, I need to know some info on burns and duration/lasting effects. While I've found a ton of info online about causes and immediate wounds, what I'm looking for is the long term damage info which is strangely not present.

If someone were severely scalded by boiling water falling on them, what would the lasting physical visible and internal damages be? Would they be scarred years later, or would their skin eventually heal? Would they lose sensation in those areas, or any other side effects from the scalding?

Any info would be helpful. I have a character I have to write with and all I know is that she had a boiling tank rupture on her as her physical description.

I have a 3rd degree w/skin graft. If left unattended, burns like that will leave a large area of scarring in the shape of the splash. If 3rd degree, the skin itself will die and slough off, and the nerves underneath will mostly die out, leaving that area almost completely senseless.
If grafts are done, the skin will acquire a mostly normal tone, but will never grow any hair and will have a slight waffle texture to it (due to the way skin grafts are applied, as a sort of diamond grated layer of skin). Also for grafts, donor sites will be visible during tanning/flushing of skin, as there will be large rectangular sheafs taken from thighs (usually).
If you need any other info, let me know.

Also - if ren era, it can't be too much of her body, as she would have probably died from infection during the "skin sloughing off" stage.

bowen · March 2011

She'd probably lose a limb if it happened to be that time period. Gangrene probably would've set in otherwise.

spool32 · March 2011

Freddy Kruger's face is actually pretty typical of steam/scalding water burns. I knew someone who got a pot of boiling water in the face as a teenager... he was permanently disfigured from it.

Jaded · March 2011

I had the door of a convection oven thrown open and hit me in the elbow when I worked in the food service industry...
16 years later I still have a scar, it's slightly raised and a lighter skin tone then my normal color.

Penny Arcade

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