The National Fire Center, reports an annual average of 2 million fires in the United States. Those fires resulted in an annual average in excess of 27,000 civilian injuries, more than 4,000 deaths.
Nursing home residents may sustain burns while at a nursing home facility. Common situations involving residents sustaining burns include:
- Baths- Staff failing to monitor the water temperature
- Smoking- Smoking especially around oxygen tanks can be disastrous
- Lighters- Senile patients playing with lighters
- Fires in the nursing home. Often nursing homes do not have proper alarms or fire-sprinklers
- Electric blankets- Staff failing to monitor patients who may not be able to detect temperature
Nursing home residents who sustain burns need focused care from experts to implement a plan to deal with the physical and psychological affects. Burns sustained by the elderly are especially difficult to treat and are commonly accompanied by infection and bedsores.