July 4 holiday comes with burn risks. Here's how to decide if you should go to the ER
Between fireworks and grilling over the July 4 holiday, there's always a way to get burned.
Remember to take precautions. But if someone does get burned at your Independence Day event, here's what you need to know.
Nationwide Children's Hospital offers the following descriptions for each degree of burn:
Story continues below gallery.
In an emergency, always call 911.
Meanwhile, if your emergency involves a burn, the American Red Cross suggests removing any clothing or jewelry that is not stuck to the burn site.
The first-aid organization says to then cool the burn — but not with ice, ice water or a freezing compress, as this can further damage skin. Instead, the Red Cross instructions say, "cool the burn as soon as possible under clean, cool, running water for 20 minutes." If there isn't cold water, the Red Cross says to use lukewarm water.
The burn should be left uncovered, but if EMS is delayed or you're transporting the person for emergency care, "cover the burn loosely with a sterile dressing, a clean dressing or a plastic wrap, if necessary."
IU Health emergency department medical director Kevin Moore said anyone with a burn should go to an urgent care office if the wound shows signs of infection. He also suggests calling 911 or going to the emergency department if the burn:
In the case of a minor burn, Moore recommended remembering the four C's for care: Cooling, cleaning, covering and comfort. He offered the following tips:
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indianapolis Star
17 hours ago
- Indianapolis Star
How hot do sparklers get? Why you should consider glow sticks instead for kids
Sparklers are a fun tradition for children around the Fourth of July holiday. But they also can be incredibly dangerous, especially in the hands of a toddler. According to the National Safety Council, sparklers can burn at around 2,000 degrees (sometimes more, depending on the brand). That's really hot to have your little one's hand so close, and waving it so close to others. Kevin Moore, emergency department medical director for IU Health, suggested small children shouldn't handle anything that's lit, including a sparkler. The National Safety Council also recommends not allowing young children to handle fireworks, and to closely supervise older children. The National Fire Protection Association recommends glow sticks as a safer alternative to sparklers.
Medscape
20 hours ago
- Medscape
Rapid Sequence Intubation Boosts First-Pass Success
TOPLINE: In a US study of patients without cardiac arrest who required prehospital intubation, rapid sequence intubation (RSI), involving the use of a sedative and paralytic, was associated with increased odds of first-pass success compared with intubation without medication. METHODOLOGY: Researchers performed a retrospective observational analysis using the 2022 Emergency Services Organization Data Collaborative dataset containing records from emergency medical services (EMS) agencies in the US. The analysis included 12,713 patients (median age, 60 years; 58.4% men; 24.2% traumatic cases) who underwent at least one intubation attempt during a 911 response. Patients in cardiac arrest were excluded. The researchers categorized drug-assisted airway management approaches on the basis of medications administered before the initial endotracheal intubation attempt: RSI (including both a sedative and a paralytic; 51.2%), sedative-only intubation (17.9%), paralytic-only intubation (1.3%), and no-medication intubation (29.6%). The primary outcome was first-pass intubation success. TAKEAWAY: The overall first-pass success rate was 75.1%. The adjusted odds of achieving first-pass success were higher with RSI (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.23; 95% CI, 2.00-2.50) and paralytic-only intubation (aOR, 2.11; 95% CI, 1.38-3.24) than with no-medication intubation. RSI showed increased odds of first-pass success compared with sedation-only intubation (aOR, 2.14; 95% CI, 1.88-2.43). Sedation-only intubation showed success rates similar to those of no-medication intubation. IN PRACTICE: "In this analysis of a large national EMS dataset of noncardiac arrest patients undergoing endotracheal intubation, rapid sequence intubation was associated with twofold higher odds of first-pass success compared with sedation-only or no-medication approaches," the authors wrote. SOURCE: The study was led by Jeffrey L. Jarvis, MD, MS, EMT-P, Burnett College of Medicine, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas. It was published online on June 04, 2025, in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. LIMITATIONS: The study focused solely on the association between drug combination and first-pass success, without evaluating causation, procedure indication appropriateness, adverse events, or clinical outcomes. EMS treatment protocols were not uniform across agencies, and the dataset lacked information on clinician experience with intubation. Variability in EMS protocols and clinician experience, potential data entry or documentation errors (including reliance on self-reported data), and a small sample size for paralytic-only intubations were additional limitations. DISCLOSURES: Funding information was not provided for the study. One author reported serving as an unpaid board member for the National Emergency Medical Service Quality Alliance, the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians, and the Prehospital Guidelines Consortium, unrelated to this study. He also reported receiving unrestricted honoraria for speaking on various topics at EMS-related conferences. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Boston Globe
Mass. EMS bills a first step to speed up ambulances and save lives
'The EMS system in our state is broken,' Feeley testified Wednesday at a hearing on the Legislature's Joint Committee on Public Health. 'Unfortunately, I witnessed its failures firsthand.' An EMT at the hearing teared up listening to Feeley's testimony during the hearing that addressed several pending bills related to local public health and emergency services. Advertisement Some municipalities, such as Boston, are large enough that they operate their own EMS services. However, around 80 percent of the state's licensed ambulances are operated by private companies that bid for the right to serve each town's population, the Globe Those private companies have not been able to hire and maintain adequate staff, which has led to ambulance delays, according to the Globe's coverage. The state also doesn't have a centralized system to coordinate ambulances and send them to another town in case of a shortage. A slate of bills intends to address the delays, most notably by designating EMS as an Advertisement Other legislation would set up a Other bills discussed at the hearing propose requiring that all 911 dispatchers in the state be trained to instruct people how to do CPR over the phone and creating a database that lists defibrillators across the state. The bill to make EMS an essential service proposes creating a fund to support EMS agencies and pay for things such as training, equipment, vehicles, and personnel salaries. Representative Leigh Davis, a Democrat of Great Barrington, who sponsored the bill said that for too long, EMS has been underfunded and is not always covered by patients' insurance. 'In 1973, the federal EMS Act left it up to the states to fund EMS, never recognizing it as an essential service,' Davis said. 'Unlike police and fire, there's no guaranteed funding, just donations, inconsistent local budgets, and low insurance reimbursement rates.' Mike Woronka, chief executive officer of Action Ambulance, a private company, said that as baby boomers retire, his company has found it difficult to fill EMS positions, making existing employees' jobs harder. 'We are beyond the crisis stage, it is affecting our staff, and it's affecting the residents of this Commonwealth,' Woronka said. Tina Dixson, an advanced EMT who has worked for 27 years in the Central Massachusetts towns of Hubbardston and Holden said she supports the bill to create a special commission on EMS. Advertisement 'If you pictured an EMT in a neatly pressed uniform, working … with the calmness and precision of a NASCAR pit crew, but with the bedside manner of Mr. Rogers, that isn't always the case,' Dixson said, 'We need a lot of assistance with some of the things in these bills.' Dixson also spoke in favor of bills creating a database for defibrillators so that people can locate one close to them in cases of emergency. Matt Zavadsky, a past president of the National Association of EMTs, said he supports the designation of EMS as an essential service, but noted the bill does not identify a funding source. Zavadsky said that it would be better for the state to designate EMS an essential service, and require localities to fund operations based on their own needs. 'Should the state set a standard that in rural areas in the Berkshires the response time should be 12 minutes?' Zavadsky said. 'And do they pick the provider they're going to contract with to provide that service? … It [should be] up to the local community to decide that.' For the bill proposing a pilot program for EMS workers to treat people 'in place,' Zavadsky said there needs to be an emphasis requiring insurers pay for treatment in place as opposed to only covering transportation to a hospital. 'Treatment in place is already proven, there's enough data out there to show that it's safe and it saves money,' he said. 'Payment models drive clinical practice, so we need the bill to require that insurers pay for treatment in place.' Angela Mathew can be reached at
