Burn Injuries

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My law practice is focused on personal injury, wrongful death and commercial trucking law practice. As president of the State Bar of Georgia, I have many occasions to speak to groups, both in and out of my practice area. The following is excerpted from my presentation — “Trial Preparation: 30 tips in 30 Minutes” – at the Georgia Law of Torts seminar at Mercer University Law School in Macon on September 23, 2011.

11. Propose a stipulation that attorneys issue deposition subpoenas.

While federal law authorizes attorneys as officers of the court to issue subpoenas on standard forms, current Georgia…

As president of the State Bar of Georgia, I often have occasion to speak at events that extend beyond my own personal injury, wrongful death and commercial trucking law practice. The following is excerpted from my presentation — “Trial Preparation: 30 tips in 30 Minutes” – at the Georgia Law of Torts seminar at Mercer University Law School in Macon on September 23, 2011.

7. Draft jury instructions early.

Judges are understandably most comfortable using pattern jury instructions. Prior to drafting the complaint and discovery, compile all the applicable pattern jury instructions and prepare a preliminary draft of additional charges…

As president of the State Bar of Georgia, I often have occasion to speak at events that extend beyond my own personal injury, wrongful death and commercial trucking law practice. The following is excerpted from my presentation — “Trial Preparation: 30 tips in 30 Minutes” – at the Georgia Law of Torts seminar at Mercer University Law School in Macon on September 23, 2011.

6. Investigate the case yourself.

Use Open Records Act requests to obtain all police photos and dashcam video,  and 911 logs and recordings. As soon as practicable, visit the scene of the incident in person and…

As president of the State Bar of Georgia, I often have occasion to speak at events that extend beyond my own personal injury, wrongful death and commercial trucking law practice. The following is excerpted from my presentation — “Trial Preparation: 30 tips in 30 Minutes” – at the Georgia Law of Torts seminar at Mercer University Law School in Macon on September 23, 2011.

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5 . Social Media.

Social media can be “self surveillance” that hands a loaded gun to the other side in litigation. Discuss with a potential client whether she might consider taking down any Facebook, MySpace,…

As president of the State Bar of Georgia, I often have occasion to speak at events that extend beyond my own personal injury, wrongful death and commercial trucking law practice. The following is excerpted from my presentation — “Trial Preparation: 30 tips in 30 Minutes” – at the Georgia Law of Torts seminar at Mercer University Law School in Macon on September 23, 2011.

2. Invest in the interview.

An attorney’s commitment to a serious contingent fee case is a major investment of time and resources. Do your due diligence as you would with any major investment. Set aside enough…

As president of the State Bar of Georgia, I have occasion to work on a number of issues and controversies beyond the scope of my own personal injury, wrongful death and commercial trucking accident trial practice.  The following is excerpted from an article by Kathleen Joyner in the Fulton County Daily Report on September 23, 2011.

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Bar committee OKs rule change
Public defenders in same circuit would be allowed to represent co-defendants under proposed amendment

The State Bar of Georgia’s Disciplinary Rules and Procedures Committee on Wednesday unanimously approved a rule change that would allow public defenders in the…

The following was published in the August 2011 issue of the Georgia Bar Journal, as my president’s column. (If you want to see the end notes, go to the online version of the Journal.) It does not deal with my practice as a personal injury and wrongful death trial attorney focused on commercial trucking accidents. Rather, it addresses core concerns of all members of the legal profession.

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It was a Sunday in December nearly 40 years ago at my grandparents’ rural home at Mentone, Ala., a bucolic spot best known for summer camps, midway between Chattanooga and…

A truck driver  was pumping fuel into his tractor trailer rig  yesterday at Benton, NY, when the passenger side caught fire. He suffered severe burns to his head, face, neck, chest and arms. The news story caught my eye for these reasons:

  • He was flown to Strong Memorial Hospital at Rochester, NY.  While I am in Atlanta, my daughter attends the Rochester Institute of Technology and has been treated at Strong Memorial.
  • Most of my law practice focuses on tractor trailer wrecks, including representation of truck drivers who are injured.
  • I am all too personally  familiar with the surreal

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Large burn injuries today are treated with split thickness skin grafts. A dermatome, a tool comparable to a cheese slicer, is used to harvest thin slices of epidermis from donor sites on an uninjured part of the body. The harvested skin may then be meshed in order to cover a larger area  by making lengthwise rows of short, interrupted cuts,  offset by half a cut length like bricks in a wall. The effect reminds one of the top of an apple pie crust.

Graft donor sites are often even more painful than burn sites.  The pain is both burn and donor locations may be absolutely surreal, beyond the capacity of words to describe. Donor sites may take longer to return to something normal coloration. The grafted sites, however, may always appear somewhat scarred and discolored with traces of the graft mesh pattern.

Now, according to a report on CNN, researchers are developing a technique to use inkjet printer technology to "print" live skin cells on a burn injury. It may be five years from clinical use.

A skin "bio-printer" was developed by modifying a standard store-bought printer by adding a three-dimensional "elevator" that builds on damaged tissue with fresh layers of healthy skin.

Skin-printing involves several steps. First, a  piece of skin about half the size of a postage stamp is taken from the patient using a chemical solution.Those cells are then separated and replicated in large quantities in a specialized environment that catalyzes this cell development. Then the new cells are put in a printer cartridge, and printed on the patient. The printer is placed over the wound at a distance so that it doesn’t touch the burn victim. It is described as " like a flat-bed scanner that moves back and forth and put cells on" the patient. Once the new cells have been applied, they mature and form new skin.

The potential for improving burn treatment is transformational. No longer would burn victims suffer from excruciating pain on large donor sites. And the new skin evenly "printed" on the injured area should be able to grow without the kind of lattice scarring and discoloration common in skin grafts today.

The current issue of Safety Report magazine carries an article by Charlie Morecraft, "A Burn Survivor’s True Story."   It shows more insight about the experience of burn injuries more than anything I have read.  Some excerpts:

  • "Burn victims will tell you that it doesn’t matter how much morphine is injected. They say the pain is so excruciating, that they have difficulty even finding the words to describe it. Burn pain can be one of the most intense and prolonged types of pain and is difficult to control because of its unique characteristic and changing patterns."
  • Regarding hydrotherapy, "one patient describes it as ‘surreal amounts of pain, almost awe, as if they were taking ladies’ stockings off my arms and legs, only, it was my own skin.’ After awhile, everyone lying in the hospital rooms comes to fear this room. morphine is kept in a locked chest nearby, in dozens of cold vials, and medical staff refill the chest every week."

I’ve been there, can vouch for the accuracy of those descriptions, but by the grace of God am fine now.  That experience informs my advocacy for burn survivors at a depth beyond mere words.

If you ever have a serious burn injury in northern Georgia, tell the ambulance driver, "take me to Grady, " as the Grady Memorial Hospital Burn Center is the only appropriate place to go for burn treatment in a large area of Georgia.