Burn injuries: Plastic surgery evaluations often necessary

When someone is injured in a fire (house fire, car accident, gas station fire, etc.) oftentimes persons sustain severe burn injuries. When resolving cases like these, it is important to keep in mind that any settlement must include past damages, current damages, and future damages as the carrier involved will often require that the person receiving a settlement sign a Release of All Claims.

Since future costs of burn treatment often include scar revision surgery — i.e., a burn often leaves behind a scar that can be corrected, in part, through plastic surgery — a person seeking to resolve a burn injury is often counseled to wait approximately one year following the injury’s event and then see a plastic surgeon to determine if surgical options exist, and how much the surgical options might cost.

Oftentimes, a single plastic surgery (operating room, anaesthesia, surgeon’s fee, assistant surgeon’s fee, etc.) will cost $10,000.00 or more, per location to be addressed, and, as above, due to the Release of All Claims involved, injured persons who have been hurt in a fire (or, for that matter, a dog bite, road rash, or other scar-producing event) should endeavor to determine what the future costs of treatment might be, prior to settling or considering settlement of a claim.

A person with a disfiguring injury is entitled to receive compensation for the future medical costs, to include plastic surgery, if it is directly related to the injury producing event — in addition to pain and suffering and embarrassment, etc., which often also accompany such wounds.