Transcription:
How To Avoid Burns During Summer Fun

Prakash Chandran: Summer fun is here and there are more ways to get burned than you might think. Most of us think about avoiding sunburns with sunscreen, but what about grills and backyard fire pits and fireworks? Even kitchens have the potential for burning us and causing injury.

Today, Dr. Michael Feldman, Medical Director of VCU Health's Evans-Haynes Burn Center, will help you be more aware of your surroundings and potential hazards.

This is Healthy with VCU Health. My name is Prakash Chandran. So first of all, Dr. Feldman, it's great to have you here today. Let's talk about some of the ways you can protect yourself and avoid burns this summer.

Dr. Michael Feldman: Absolutely. Thank you for this chance to have this really important conversation. Whatever we can do to avoid burn injuries is hugely important to us. Some ways to avoid burn injuries during the summer, well, that's a broad topic. I think that we could start with all those outdoor activities, like the most common one we see is grilling and folks may get a little bit ahead of themselves and put some accelerant on the grill and anything that's going to make the fire start quicker will make it potentially into a flash injury where it can flare up and injure your face and create smoke and that can cause so many problems. So we just encourage folks to avoid using accelerants and to be very vigilant with their grills. You don't want to leave it alone. You always want to be there watching it. This can be helpful if you have children around who may have a wandering, prying hands.

Prakash Chandran: Yes. I totally know what you mean. And just to be clear, when you say accelerant, you're talking about things like lighter fluid, right?

Dr. Michael Feldman: Right. Exactly.

Prakash Chandran: Got it. I am a hundred percent guilty of that. Sometimes I feel like I just like to watch like how big of a flame can I make, but I realized how dangerous that can be. I'm sure that you see lot of injuries come in from people doing that, don't you?

Dr. Michael Feldman: We do. We do. And folks do like to burn trash and brush as well. So they'll use gasoline, which unfortunately is the cause of so many burn injuries. It just happens very quickly. Even the fumes can catch on fire and then it will get your clothes on fire and you just can't escape. I would encourage folks to avoid gasoline at all costs.

Prakash Chandran: So what's like the most common types of injuries that you see during the summer months? Like, is it, for example, from those beach bonfires or are you seeing a lot of people burn themselves with a grill? Or maybe talk to some of the most common things that you see in the summer that people should be on the watch out for.

Dr. Michael Feldman: Yeah. It's the grilling. It's the bonfires to burn trash and debris and leaves. It is people being outside, so you can see some pretty bad sunburns actually. And you may think, "Oh, well, sunburn is no big deal." But when you have large areas of blistering skin, it can be very painful, keep you home from work or make life pretty miserable. That can be avoided by just protecting yourself at all times.

People are cooking more and using grease. I see a fair number of cooking injuries and you have to be careful, especially with grease. You always want to be there while you're cooking with grease. Don't leave it unattended. If you have a fire, turn the stove off, cover it with a lid, but don't grab it and run.

And nothing is worth your or your family's lives, so get out of the house if there's a fire. Call our firefighters, they're amazing. Protect yourselves. It's not just your home, that can be replaced, but you and your family cannot.

Prakash Chandran: A hundred percent. So just trying to concoct a framework for the way we should think about avoiding burns this summer, the thing that I think most people should be aware of, which is getting sunburn, right? So that's trying to protect yourself with sunscreen and that's one of the things that you alluded to. But is there or are there best practices for when you're cooking at home or cooking on the grill, ways to just stay safe or safer, so people don't get burned when they're trying to cook food?

Dr. Michael Feldman: Honestly, I think it's being vigilant and not leaving whatever food you have cooking alone. You just can't. You can't walk away, unfortunately. And that's where I see so many things happen. I also would encourage everyone to keep their smoke detectors up-to-date and have smoke detectors, if not in every room, in areas where have the potential for smoke, in hallways and around your kitchen, especially.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I think one of the points that you're trying to make is that so often we're having fun, we're cooking in the middle of a party or in the middle of having company, we forget about the thing that we're cooking, and then we run to something that has gotten out of control. And I think one of the things you also said was don't try to get it back under control yourself. It's best to get your family out of the way, so you can let professionals try and deal with it. Is that correct?

Dr. Michael Feldman: Absolutely.

Prakash Chandran: Okay. So let's talk about another activity that people do a lot or tend to do a lot during summer, and that is camping or hiking, or just being in the outdoors. Do you have any best practices around making sure that people stay safe while camping?

Dr. Michael Feldman: Yeah, I think it's best to be with folks who have experience, know where you're going, let people know where you are. If you are going to have a fire, I think it's important that you have a way to make sure you put it out. I have a fair number of people who get injured falling into campfires, so be careful if you have children in and around them. And be careful with the combination of alcohol and campfires.

Prakash Chandran: Yes, that makes a lot of sense. So there's going to be people out there that, especially this summer, want to get out and have a great time and they drink a little too much and maybe they do end up getting burned. If they get burned, what are best practices around what they should do immediately and how they should get it treated?

Dr. Michael Feldman: I can't emphasize enough that it is important to have your burn seen by someone who understands how to treat burns as quickly as possible. The most problematic burns I've seen are folks who either haven't sought care early or perhaps they see someone who is less experienced. And it's easy to underestimate these kinds of burns. It can take a long time to heal. Sometimes they need surgery. They can leave scars. So finding a burn center close to you is really important. And there's one nationally verified burn center in the Commonwealth of Virginia. That's the Evans-Haynes Burn Center. We have 24/7 support to help anybody who gets burned.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah. I actually heard your burn unit is the longest serving civilian burn unit. And so maybe you can talk about why that's important to Richmond and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Dr. Michael Feldman: Yeah. It is the longest running civilian burn center in the United States. It opened in 1947. That's really impressive. It's been running longer than the American Burn Association has been around. So it has quite the pedigree. This is important because treating burns is not something that you just know how to do. You have to build a system. You have to staff it with people who are dedicated to burn. You have to have protocols and guidelines. You have to have an administration that supports it. And VCU Health has all of that and has been doing it for so long, that when you get a burn injury, they know what to do, they know how to take care of you and not only help you with your acute burn, but make sure that you have best outcomes later with your scar management and reconstruction. You want to have everything under one roof that you need.

Prakash Chandran: Absolutely. So without question, if you do get burned this summer, the best thing that you can do is go to the burn unit immediately. Any best practices around how to basically treat it immediately? Like, let's say, right after you get burned, is there a certain way that you should treat it to make sure that it's in a good place for when you go to see a professional?

Dr. Michael Feldman: You got to stop the burning process. So, if there is clothing that's hot or something is stuck to your skin that's hot, you have to be very careful. That, if it's still hot, you can cool that off or you can remove involved clothing. But you wouldn't want to leave wet rags or wet clothing on. You want to make sure that you put something clean and dry over it. If you're not able to get to care quickly, let's say you're out camping, perhaps you have some anti-microbial ointments, like bacitracin is fine, at least until someone knowledgeable can take a look at it and give some feedback. You don't want to leave it in wet and cold dressings for a long period of time, because that can injure your skin.

Prakash Chandran: I'm so glad you said that, you know, because even like small manifestations of burns, like let's say for example, I'll pick up a hot tray after baking some cookies. The first thing that I do, and I'm not sure why I do this is like, I run to the sink. I put cold water on it. I like put an ice cube on it. And I would think that if it got exacerbated or if I had a more severe burn, to like to wrap it in something cold and wet. So, you're actually saying the exact opposite.

Dr. Michael Feldman: The problem is that if you leave it in those cold wet dressings, it macerates the skin. It makes the skin swollen and pale. like you see when you've been sitting in the bathtub for too long and it shunts blood flow away from your skin because that's what cold does to the body. And you need all the blood flow you can to heal and avoid conversion, which is a term just meaning that the burn can get worse, like a first-degree can become a second or a second can become a third. So yes, it's fine short-term, but you don't want to leave it long- term. And if it's hurting without all that, it's just another reason that you need to seek expert care.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah. So, I wanted to move back to some of the things that injure people during the summer months, especially during the month of July. A lot of people I'm sure and I've seen handle their own fireworks. So, it wouldn't surprise me at all that you're seeing a lot of people come in with burn injuries from doing that. Is that the case?

Dr. Michael Feldman: We do. It is so avoidable. And I understand that fireworks are fun, and they could be beautiful. But I see the other side of it where people get horrible burn injuries or they lose limbs. It is tragic. So I can't emphasize enough that people need to be very careful with fireworks. It is even possible to get horrible burns with those sparklers. I've seen the coating on the sparklers fall off and then stick to people's skin. I've seen bottle rockets that they were launching and they'll take our turn and then lodge into people's bodies who weren't even lighting the firework, they're just sitting off to the side. So you cannot be too careful with fireworks. They're unpredictable.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah. It's best to leave it to the professionals and really just enjoy the show, right?

Dr. Michael Feldman: Right. Absolutely. And do not hold on to them. That is never a good thing.

Prakash Chandran: So Dr. Feldman, just as we close here, is there any other recommendations or anything you'd like to leave our audience with regards to avoiding burns and keeping safe during the summer?

Dr. Michael Feldman: We've covered a lot. And I really appreciate this opportunity to talk about it because we're very passionate about this. And I can't emphasize enough that if you can avoid getting a burn injury in the first place, it is the best. But if unfortunately you do get injured, come see us. Let us help you. This is what we have been doing for a long time, and we are here to help.

Prakash Chandran: Well, absolutely. Dr. Feldman, really appreciate the advice today and I think that's the perfect place to end. Thank you so much for your time.

That's Dr. Michael Feldman, Medical Director at VCU Health's Evans-Haynes Burn Center. Thanks for checking out this episode of Healthy with VCU Health. To learn more about injury prevention and our expert burn care, please visit VCUHealth.org/burn. To listen to other podcasts from VCU Health, visit VCUHealth.org/podcasts. This is Healthy with VCU Health. My name is Prakash Chandran, and thanks so much for listening.