Wish you a very Happy Diwali !
It being the festival season of Diwali, we see a lot of cases of Burns due to fire cracker, most commonly while lightening the fire cracker, when the cracker bursts suddenly and burns your hand or in other cases when the firecracker flames catches your clothes and you have burns.
Important first aid / emergency tips for management of burns, especially fire carcakers burns –
- Stop the burning process – extinguish the fire. Important is to avoid any secondary injury to the patient while putting off the fire.
- Remove any burnt / contaminated clothing. Leave any melted or adherent clothing.
- Remove all jewellery, rings, nappies, contact lense near the burned area, if you can.
- Cool the Burn wound – Most important advise – commence cooling the as soon as possible. Irrigate with normal running tap water for 20 minutes. Do not apply ice / ice water / ice packs. Cooling is beneficial upto 3 hours post burn injury. Applying tap water does not cause any infection.
- Cover the wound – next most important is cover the wound with a cling film (if you have) or a simple fresh cotton towel.
Do not apply local remedies such as Colgate, haldi etc. It does not help. Rather it becomes a source of infection in burns and can infect the wound. If you wish to apply, apply Neosporin Skin ointment
- See a doctor – see a Burn Specialist / Plastic surgeon who is a specialist in treating Burns.