You heard yourself screaming before you fully understood what was happening. By the time the heat registered, the damage was already done. Maybe it was a flash of flame from an industrial explosion, or chemicals that splashed onto your skin and started eating through it before anyone could react. Maybe it was scalding liquid, or an electrical arc, or a fire that someone’s negligence allowed to start. Whatever caused it, the seconds of the burn itself were only the beginning. What followed, and what continues to follow, is a medical ordeal that most people cannot imagine until they live through it.
I’m Scott DeSalvo. I’ve been representing injured people in Chicago for over 27 years. My path to law started when I was nine years old, watching my father, a Teamster truck driver, suffer through a devastating work injury and then spend 17 years fighting through the legal system just to get what he was owed. That experience taught me exactly how the system treats people who are already suffering, and it made me commit my career to fighting back. If you or someone you love has suffered a severe burn because of another person’s or company’s negligence, I want to talk to you.
The numbers are staggering. Researchers estimate that approximately 600,000 Americans suffer burn injuries requiring emergency medical care every year. According to the American Burn Association, roughly 29,000 of those burns are severe enough to require hospital admission, and the overall inpatient mortality rate is 2.7 percent, which translates to nearly 800 deaths per year among hospitalized burn patients alone. When you add fire and smoke inhalation deaths that occur outside hospitals, the total reaches approximately 3,800 fire-related fatalities per year in the United States, which works out to one fire-related death every two hours and seventeen minutes.
The demographics of burn injuries reveal important patterns. Sixty-six percent of burn patients are male. The median age for adult burn patients is 49 years, but burns have a bimodal distribution, hitting both very young children and working-age adults particularly hard. Among children admitted for burns, the median age is just three years old. Racially, Black Americans and Hispanic Americans are disproportionately affected by burn injuries. Flash and flame burns account for 41.7 percent of admissions, followed by scalds at 32.2 percent, contact burns at 10.8 percent, chemical burns at 3.7 percent, and electrical burns at 2.9 percent.
While survival rates have improved dramatically over the past several decades thanks to advances in burn center care, surviving a severe burn is just the start of an extraordinarily long and painful journey. Over $7.9 billion is spent on emergency room visits and hospital burn care in the United States each year. For burns covering more than 10 percent of total body surface area, total medical charges for surviving patients average $269,523. And those figures only capture the initial hospitalization. They do not include the years of reconstructive surgery, scar management, physical therapy, and psychological treatment that follow.
The severity of a burn injury is measured by two critical factors: the depth of the burn and the total body surface area affected. Both directly influence the complexity and cost of treatment, the likelihood of permanent scarring and disability, and the ultimate value of a legal claim. Medical professionals and attorneys need to understand both in detail.
First-degree burns affect only the epidermis, the outermost layer of skin. They cause redness, pain, and minor swelling but typically heal within a week without scarring. Sunburns are the most common example. First-degree burns rarely give rise to significant legal claims unless they cover a very large area.
Second-degree burns penetrate through the epidermis into the dermis, the underlying layer that contains blood vessels, nerve endings, sweat glands, and hair follicles. These burns cause blistering, severe pain, and swelling. Second-degree burns are further divided into superficial partial-thickness burns, which affect the upper dermis and usually heal within two to three weeks with minimal scarring, and deep partial-thickness burns, which extend deeper into the dermis, take three to eight weeks to heal, and frequently result in significant scarring. Deep partial-thickness burns often require surgical intervention, including skin grafting, and the line between a deep second-degree burn and a third-degree burn can be difficult to distinguish in the acute phase.
Third-degree burns, also called full-thickness burns, destroy the entire epidermis and dermis. Because the nerve endings in the dermis are destroyed, the burn site itself may paradoxically feel numb, even though the surrounding areas are in excruciating pain. Third-degree burns cannot heal on their own because the regenerative layer of the skin has been destroyed. They always require surgical treatment, typically involving debridement of dead tissue followed by skin grafting. Third-degree burns produce severe scarring, contractures, and permanent disfigurement.
Fourth-degree burns extend beyond the skin into underlying structures including fat, muscle, tendons, and even bone. These are the most devastating burn injuries, often caused by prolonged exposure to fire, high-voltage electrical contact, or industrial explosions. Fourth-degree burns frequently result in the loss of limbs or digits, and they carry the highest mortality rates.
The percentage of total body surface area burned is the other critical measurement. The general rule of thumb in burn care is that a patient’s hospital stay averages approximately one day for every percent of TBSA burned. But the relationship between TBSA and mortality is exponential, not linear. Patients with 10 percent TBSA burns have a mortality rate of roughly 0.6 percent. At 40 percent TBSA, mortality jumps to approximately 30 percent. At 70 percent TBSA, the fatality rate reaches 50 percent. More than 67 percent of admitted burn patients have less than 10 percent TBSA involvement, but the patients with larger burns account for a disproportionate share of treatment costs, complications, and deaths.
Treating a severe burn is among the most grueling experiences in all of medicine, both for the patient and for the medical team. Understanding what burn treatment actually involves is essential for anyone evaluating a burn injury claim, because the treatment itself is a major source of damages.
Severe burn patients are among the most critically ill patients in any hospital. The initial treatment focuses on stabilizing the patient’s airway, managing the massive fluid shifts that occur as the body responds to the burn, and preventing the onset of shock. Burns covering more than 20 percent of TBSA trigger a systemic inflammatory response that causes fluid to leak from blood vessels throughout the body, not just at the burn site. This fluid loss can be fatal if not aggressively replaced through intravenous resuscitation. Patients with facial burns or smoke inhalation may require emergency intubation to protect the airway before swelling makes it impossible.
Once the patient is stabilized, the focus shifts to wound care. Dead tissue must be surgically removed through a process called debridement, often performed in stages. This is followed by skin grafting, in which healthy skin is harvested from an unburned area of the patient’s body, called the donor site, and transplanted to the burn wound. The harvested skin is either applied as a sheet graft for areas where cosmetic appearance is critical, such as the face and hands, or passed through a mesh device that expands the skin to cover a larger area. Mesh grafts allow coverage of greater wound surfaces but leave a permanent crosshatch pattern in the resulting scar.
For patients with extensive burns, there may not be enough healthy skin available for grafting. These patients may require temporary coverage with cadaver skin or bioengineered skin substitutes while their donor sites heal enough to be reharvested. Some patients undergo dozens of surgical procedures over the course of their treatment. In one documented Illinois case, a young man who suffered severe burns from a chemical explosion was hospitalized for eight months and underwent seventeen separate skin grafting procedures.
The complication rates in severe burn care are sobering. Pneumonia is the most prevalent complication among burn center patients, followed by urinary tract infection, cellulitis, respiratory failure, and wound infection. Research on burn treatment costs identifies the following complication rates and their associated additional costs: disfigurement, scarring, or contracture occurs in 66 percent of severe burn cases and adds $28,000 to $35,000 to treatment costs. Psychological complications occur in 57 percent of cases and add $16,000 to $75,000. Fragile skin or skin breakdown occurs in 55 percent of cases and add $38,000 to $107,000. Infections, including pneumonia, sepsis, and organ failure, occur in 35 percent of cases and add $58,000 to $120,000. Delayed wound healing or skin graft failure occurs in 32 percent of cases and adds $37,000 to $110,000.
One of the most devastating and least understood aspects of severe burn injury is the hypermetabolic response. Major burns trigger a massive increase in metabolic rate that can persist for years after the initial injury. The body’s resting energy expenditure can increase by 40 to 100 percent, causing rapid muscle wasting, bone density loss, and impaired immune function. Burn patients require dramatically increased caloric intake just to maintain body weight, and the metabolic derangement contributes to delayed wound healing, increased susceptibility to infection, and prolonged recovery times. This hypermetabolic state is a medical reality that must be accounted for in damage calculations, because it drives ongoing nutritional support needs, increased medical monitoring, and elevated healthcare costs for years after the burn.
Virtually every patient who survives a severe burn lives with permanent scarring. Hypertrophic scarring, in which the scar tissue becomes raised, thickened, and discolored, develops in 30 to 77 percent of burn patients depending on the depth and location of the burn and the patient’s age and ethnicity. The risk of hypertrophic scar formation increases dramatically when wound healing takes longer than 21 days. These scars are not merely cosmetic. They cause chronic itching, pain, and temperature sensitivity that can persist for years.
Contractures are an even more functionally devastating consequence. When scar tissue forms over a joint or in an area of the body that requires flexibility, the scar tissue contracts as it matures, pulling the surrounding skin tight and restricting movement. Contractures over the neck can prevent a person from turning their head. Contractures over the hands can freeze the fingers in a clawed position. Contractures across the axilla, the armpit, can prevent a person from raising their arm. Severe contractures may require multiple surgical releases over the course of years, and even after surgical intervention, the range of motion rarely returns to normal. Contractures are more common in children, flame burns, and burns of the upper extremity and cervical spine.
The psychological impact of a severe burn injury is profound and persistent. Studies consistently show that 30 to 35 percent of burn survivors develop clinical depression. Many experience post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, body image disturbance, and social withdrawal. The visible nature of burn scarring creates a unique psychological burden: every social interaction, every glance in a mirror, every time someone stares or looks away, reinforces the trauma of the injury. Burn survivors frequently report avoiding social situations, struggling with intimacy, and experiencing a fundamental change in their sense of identity. The psychological treatment for these conditions often continues for years and becomes a substantial component of both economic damages and non-economic damages in a legal claim.
Chronic pain after severe burns is the norm, not the exception. Neuropathic pain from damaged nerves, tightness and pulling from scar tissue, sensitivity to temperature changes, and the persistent itching of hypertrophic scars all contribute to a pain experience that can last a lifetime. Many burn survivors require ongoing pain management, including medications, nerve blocks, and physical therapy, for years after their initial treatment is complete. The daily experience of chronic pain from burn injuries significantly impacts quality of life and is a major component of damages in a burn injury case.
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Burn injuries arise from a wide range of circumstances, each involving different legal theories and potential defendants. Identifying every responsible party is critical to maximizing compensation.
Workplace burns are devastatingly common. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported nearly 19,000 workers burned on the job in a single year, including both thermal and chemical burns. Construction workers, industrial workers, food preparation workers, welders, electricians, and chemical plant employees all face elevated burn risks. Workplace explosions, often caused by accumulated combustible dust, chemical reactions, or gas leaks, produce some of the most catastrophic burn injuries. A $67 million Illinois verdict was awarded to a worker burned in a grain bin explosion at a ConAgra facility in Chester, Illinois. Two brothers in Chicago received a $6.2 million verdict after a calcium stearate dust explosion at a grinding mill. A welder in Chicago recovered $2.55 million after an equipment explosion caused third-degree burns on his arms during a bridge repair project.
Workplace burn cases often involve both workers’ compensation claims and third-party personal injury lawsuits. Workers’ compensation covers medical expenses and partial wage replacement but does not compensate for pain and suffering. If a third party such as a machine manufacturer, chemical supplier, subcontractor, or property owner was responsible for the conditions that caused the burn, a separate personal injury lawsuit can pursue full damages including pain and suffering, full lost wages, and diminished quality of life.
Apartment fires, house fires, and commercial building fires cause thousands of burn injuries every year. These cases may involve claims against landlords who failed to maintain working smoke detectors, building owners who violated fire codes, electrical contractors whose faulty wiring caused the fire, manufacturers of defective appliances or electrical products, or property management companies that blocked fire exits or failed to maintain sprinkler systems. A $6 million settlement was recovered for the families of six children who died in a Chicago apartment fire caused by non-working smoke detectors. A $100 million global settlement was achieved for victims of a fire at the Cook County Administration Building in the Chicago Loop. A $3.25 million settlement was recovered for a man injured in a natural gas explosion at his home caused by a gas leak from People’s Gas.
Product liability is a powerful avenue for burn injury claims. Defective appliances, electrical equipment, space heaters, batteries, vehicles, and industrial chemicals all give rise to product liability claims when their defects cause fires or burns. An Illinois jury awarded $7.1 million to a woman badly burned when a can of Swell cooking spray manufactured by Conagra Brands exploded in a kitchen, including $4 million in punitive damages. Conagra was found to have manufactured cans with a venting system that discharged flammable contents under normal use conditions, and more than 50 additional burn victims have filed similar claims. Product liability claims in Illinois can be pursued under strict liability, meaning you do not have to prove the manufacturer was careless, only that the product was defective and that the defect caused your injury.
Chemical burns result from contact with caustic substances including acids, alkalis, solvents, and industrial cleaning agents. Unlike thermal burns, chemical burns continue damaging tissue as long as the chemical remains in contact with the skin, and they can cause internal injuries if vapors are inhaled. Chemical burns are particularly common in construction, manufacturing, industrial facilities, and automotive repair. They account for 3.7 percent of burn admissions and frequently arise in workplace settings where employers fail to provide adequate personal protective equipment, proper chemical storage, or sufficient safety training.
Electrical burns represent 2.9 percent of burn admissions but are among the most dangerous because the visible injury on the skin’s surface often dramatically understates the internal damage. High-voltage electrical current passes through the body along the path of least resistance, damaging muscles, nerves, blood vessels, and internal organs along the way. Electrical burn victims frequently suffer cardiac complications, compartment syndrome requiring emergency surgery, and delayed tissue death that only becomes apparent days after the initial injury. An Illinois case involved a fiber-optic crew foreman who suffered burns from an explosion and fire when he opened what he believed was a fiber-optic line but was actually a 750-kilowatt power line, resulting in a $1.3 million settlement.
Elderly residents in nursing homes and assisted living facilities are particularly vulnerable to burn injuries from scalding water, unmonitored cooking, improperly maintained heating equipment, and cigarette-related fires. These cases involve claims of negligent supervision, failure to maintain safe water temperatures, and failure to implement fire safety protocols. A $1.5 million settlement was recovered against a nursing home that failed to monitor a mentally impaired resident’s cigarette smoking, leading to severe burns and death. Another $1.5 million settlement was obtained for an 87-year-old nursing home resident severely burned when seated in a steaming-hot sitz bath.
You can file a lawsuit for any burn injury caused by another party’s negligence, including thermal burns from fires and explosions, scald burns from hot liquids, chemical burns, electrical burns, and radiation burns. The key legal question is not the type of burn but whether someone else’s negligence, a defective product, or an unsafe condition caused it. If the answer is yes, you have a claim.
The value depends on the depth and extent of the burns, the amount of TBSA affected, the location of the burns on the body, the victim’s age, the impact on earning capacity, and the degree of permanent scarring and functional limitation. Burns on the face, hands, and joints carry higher case values because of their impact on appearance, daily function, and employability. A young worker with extensive third-degree burns covering visible areas of the body will have a substantially higher case value than an older person with localized second-degree burns that heal without significant scarring.
Yes, but the path depends on who caused the injury. You are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits from your employer regardless of fault. If a third party such as a machine manufacturer, chemical supplier, subcontractor, or property owner caused or contributed to the burn, you can also file a separate personal injury lawsuit against that third party for full damages including pain and suffering. These two claims run simultaneously and are handled in different legal systems.
If a landlord’s failure to maintain smoke detectors, comply with fire codes, address electrical hazards, or maintain safe conditions contributed to the fire and your injuries, you have a premises liability claim against the landlord and potentially against the property management company. These cases can involve substantial damages given the severity of residential fire injuries.
Severe burn cases typically take longer than other personal injury cases because the medical treatment extends over a long period, often years. It is generally not advisable to settle a burn case until the full extent of treatment is known and the long-term prognosis is clear, because settling too early risks undervaluing the claim. Most serious burn cases take two to four years from the date of injury to resolve, though some resolve sooner through settlement and others take longer if they proceed to trial.
I handle burn injury cases on a contingency fee basis. You pay nothing upfront, and I do not collect a fee unless we recover compensation for you. All costs of investigation, expert witnesses, and litigation are advanced by the firm and recovered from the settlement or verdict. If we do not win, you owe nothing.
Get emergency medical treatment. Your life and your health are the first priority. If you are burned at work, report the injury to your employer within 45 days as required by Illinois law. Preserve any evidence you can: the clothing you were wearing, photographs of the scene and any equipment involved, names of witnesses, and any incident reports. Do not give recorded statements to any insurance company before speaking with an attorney. Contact an experienced burn injury lawyer as soon as your medical condition allows.
Absolutely. Scarring and disfigurement are among the most significant components of damages in a burn injury case. Illinois law recognizes the profound impact that permanent visible scarring has on a person’s life, and juries regularly award substantial non-economic damages for disfigurement. Under workers’ compensation, disfigurement carries up to 162 weeks of additional benefits. In a personal injury case, there is no cap on the amount a jury can award for disfigurement.
Severe burn cases demand a lawyer who understands the medical complexity of burn treatment, the long timeline of recovery and reconstruction, and the specialized experts needed to document the lifetime impact of the injury. They demand someone who knows that the first settlement offer will almost certainly undervalue your case, because insurance companies understand that burn victims are in financial distress and may feel pressure to accept less than they deserve.
I have spent 27 years fighting for people with catastrophic injuries. I have tried more than 30 cases to jury verdict. I trained at Gerry Spence’s Trial Lawyer’s College and The Edge program, two of the most intensive and selective trial advocacy programs in the country. I handle every case on a contingency fee basis, which means you pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you.
I understand what it means to watch someone you love suffer through a catastrophic injury. I watched my father go through it for 17 years. That experience never leaves you, and it shapes how you treat every client who walks through your door. When a burn victim or their family calls me, they are not a case number. They are someone who is living through one of the worst experiences of their life, and they deserve a lawyer who will fight as hard for them as I would fight for my own family.
If you or someone you love has suffered a severe burn injury because of someone else’s negligence, call DeSalvo Law. The consultation is free. The conversation is confidential. And if I cannot help you, I will tell you honestly and try to connect you with someone who can.
Scott DeSalvo founded DeSalvo Law to help injured people throughout Chicago and surrounding suburbs. Licensed to practice law in Illinois since 1998, IARDC #6244452, Scott has represented over 3,000 clients in personal injury, workers compensation, and accident cases.
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