Latest news with #burns
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Health
- Yahoo
17-Year-Old Left with 'Significant' Burns After Stepping Through Thermal Crust on Yellowstone Hike
The National Park Service said this is the first known thermal injury in Yellowstone this yearNEED TO KNOW The National Park Service (NPS) said a 17-year-old male was hiking in the thermal area of Yellowstone when his foot broke through a thin crust, resulting in burns to his lower extremity The teen was taken to a hospital for further treatment, officials said The last reported incident involving a thermal injury in Yellowstone happened in September 2024, according to the NPSOfficials said a 17-year-old male sustained 'significant' thermal burns to his foot and ankle area while hiking in Yellowstone National Park earlier this week. The National Park Service (NPS) said in a news release that the incident happened on the morning of Monday, July 28, in the vicinity of Lone Star Geyser near Old Faithful. According to authorities, the teen was hiking in the thermal area when his foot broke through a thin crust, resulting in the burns. 'Emergency medical staff responded and transported the patient to a hospital for further treatment,' the news release stated. 'This incident is under investigation and there is no additional information to share,' the release continued. The NPS said that this is the first known thermal injury at the park this year, adding that a similar case was last reported in September 2024. In the prior incident, a 60-year-old female Yellowstone visitor from New Hampshire was walking off-trail with her husband and leashed dog in a thermal area when she also broke through a thin crust, the NPS said at the time. The victim reportedly suffered second- and third-degree burns to her lower leg, officials added, and was transported by helicopter for further medical treatment. Her husband and dog were unharmed. The NPS encouraged visitors to stay safe in thermal areas of the park, stating that walking on boardwalks and designated trails offers protection. 'Water in hot springs can cause severe or fatal burns, and scalding water underlies most of the thin, breakable crust around hot springs,' the NPS said in their release about the injured 17-year-old. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. In addition to staying on the boardwalk and trails, park officials recommend visitors avoid touching thermal areas or runoff, and avoid throwing objects into hot springs. They added that swimming or soaking in the hot springs is prohibited, as is bringing pets to the thermal areas. According to the NPS, the Lone Star Geyser "erupts up to 45 feet from a 12-foot cone approximately every three hours.' Hiking the Lone Star Geyser trail takes between two and three hours. Read the original article on People
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
California woman, 18, is disfigured in freak accident involving s'mores on a tabletop firepit
A California woman's been left disfigured after flames 'exploded' in her face while making s'mores over an outdoor firepit. Viana Poggi, 18, was enjoying a fun summer night on July 6 with her cousin Alaina Arbiso when chaos unfolded before their eyes. While using a cement tabletop firepit, flames suddenly blew toward Poggi, leaving her with blistering burns on her face and arms. Her cousin Arbiso said all she could remember was how fast everything happened in that terrifying moment, before she pushed her relative into a nearby pool. Arbiso said: 'Within, like, a millisecond, you don't even see it coming - you have no time to react. It just happened.' After pushing Poggi into the water, Arbiso then grabbed a hose and sprayed down the flames spreading on the table. Another family member was also hit by the dangerous flames, but only Poggi was severely injured. When she got to a local burns center, staff asked Poggi about what was used to fuel the firepit. Poggi said: 'Even when I got to the ER, I just said I got hit by fire, and they asked me, "Was it rubbing alcohol?" Because it's so common for people to be burned that way.' A friend of hers Alexandra Welsh, who's a trauma nurse in the emergency room, was shocked after seeing someone she knew arrive with such intense injuries. Welsh said: 'I work at a trauma center, so I see a lot of traumatic injuries come in, but it is so different when it is someone who you think of as a little sister.' Despite the freak accident impacting her life, Poggi, who's been left with scars and burn marks, decided to make the best of it. She documented her recovery on TikTok, where she showed herself wearing a hospital gown when she was still covered in bandages. Poggi said: 'I always remember it could have been worse. I try to keep a good attitude.' The teen's due to start college soon at the University of San Francisco but, because of the burns, she's also preparing for several procedures to help with her recover. A GoFundMe page was set up by Arbiso to help her cousin with medical expenses while she embarked on the next chapter of her life. Arbiso wrote about Poggi: 'With the big move coming, multiple reconstruction surgeries, and a long emotional/physical recovery in her foreseeable future, [she's] going to need all the help she can get.' Poggi hoped that her unfortunate experience would make other people think twice before they used specific types of firepits. She said: 'I really want people to know the danger of using an alcohol-fueled pit because they are so common. We owned, I think, three of them.' There were several types of tabletop alcohol-fueled firepit available to buy online and in stores. Some were fueled by gel fuel, wood, wood pellets, and propane. Last year, multiple types of the vessel were recalled by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The recall on the popular brand Colsen's pits warned that 'alcohol flames can be invisible and lead to flame jetting when refilling the firepit reservoir'.
ABC News
6 days ago
- ABC News
Burns victim reunites with rescuers after life-changing attack
Readers are advised this story contains images of a person with severe burns, which some people may find distressing. Paul Taylor had always been curious to learn the fate of the man he found with severe burns on the side of a windy, rural road. It was June 2022 when the motorcyclist, bound for his home at Shoalhaven Heads on the NSW south coast, happened to have made a scenic detour through Saddleback Mountain and made the grim discovery. Unbeknownst to Mr Taylor, the man he was tending to, Central West local Andrew Gibson, had been doused in petrol by a former friend and set alight in an unprovoked attack. Paramedics at first struggled to locate the pair among the difficult terrain but upon arrival, assessed Mr Gibson for third-degree burns to his face, chest and hands, and placed him into an induced coma before he was flown to a Sydney hospital. "I was actually waiting for somebody to call and say he didn't make it because he was in such a bad way," Mr Taylor said. It would be three years before Mr Taylor would know what became of that fateful day. Mr Gibson spent five days in intensive care, underwent multiple surgeries and had months of hospital rehabilitation. "They say you should drop and roll [when on fire] but I did a pretty fast Peter Garrett impersonation of getting all my clothes off as quick as I could." The now 54-year-old said as the incident took place in a secluded area with little traffic, it was some time before he was found by Mr Taylor. "That was a moment of relief. I thought my pain and suffering was finally about to end," Mr Gibson said. The man responsible for the attack on Mr Gibson, Quinton Nydegger, who lives with diagnosed schizophrenia, was sentenced to almost seven years' jail in September 2023 and will be eligible for parole next year. Mr Gibson said he had been unable to work since, now suffered from PTSD and had lost some sensation in his scarred hands. But he said he was ready to take back his life by travelling Australia and first wanted to thank the passer-by and paramedic who saved his life. On a warm July morning, outside Kiama Ambulance Station, Mr Gibson shared a welcome embrace from his rescuer Mr Taylor and first-on-scene paramedic Matt Edwards. The meet-up was organised by NSW Ambulance after Mr Gibson reached out ahead of his planned travels. He said it was a form of closure and "way to say thank you". Mr Taylor described the moment as "special" and said he was surprised to see Mr Gibson in good health. "He's looking well … I thought he would have had stumps for fingers they were so bad," he said. Mr Edwards, who has been a paramedic for 20 years, said he still had "vivid memories" of Mr Gibson's case. Marty Nichols, associate director of paramedicine and clinical practice at NSW Ambulance, said reuniting patients with emergency personnel was both "rare and unique". "We are very mindful we get to come into people's homes and see them on their worst days to relieve their pain or provide critical treatment, but the reality is we very rarely find out what happened to them," he said. NSW Ambulance only records patient-specific information, so locating Mr Taylor and organising a suitable time for all three men to meet took months. "It's not always possible or easy," Mr Nichols said. "If meeting up with paramedics can help someone in their recovery journey then we went to be part of that."
Telegraph
7 days ago
- Health
- Telegraph
‘The worst cases are the children': British burns doctor in Gaza says health system is overwhelmed
Hospitals in Gaza are overwhelmed with severe burns victims from Israel's military campaign, a top British plastic surgeon working in the war zone has said. Dr Tom Potokar said he had been operating on 10 to 12 patients each day at hospitals in the besieged territory, but had still not been able to treat everyone who needed surgery. The experienced plastic surgeon has done 16 stints as a volunteer in Gaza's hospitals in recent years, including several since the beginning of Israel's military retaliation following Hamas' October 7 attacks. Many of those he treated since the campaign began had burns from blasts, while three-quarters of those cases have been women or children. He told the Telegraph: '[You are] operating on 10 to 12 patients per day, but that's taking the top 10 priority, but there's still plenty more behind that that needed operating.' He said in the first six weeks after Israel began its military campaign following the Hamas Oct 7 attacks, every patient he operated on had a burn injury. With the densely populated territory under air strikes and ground operations for much of the past two years, the high incidence of burns had continued. Plastic surgery is one of the most sorely needed surgical disciplines during a conflict, and the lack of burns expertise in poorer countries and war zones in 2006 led him to found the medical charity Interburns, to try to improve care. He has also been Professor of Global Burn Injury at Swansea University and consultant plastic surgeon at the Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery. When he first worked in Gaza in 2018, there were only two fully qualified specialists, one of them partially retired. In his most recent trip, in May and June this year working with the Ideals international aid charity, he said he has seen 'horrendous injuries from blasts, including limbs being ripped off'. 'I saw many cases of bilateral or triple limb amputations, huge open wounds on the back, on the chest, with the lung exposed. Really horrendous blast injuries from shrapnel and as I say, a lot of them combined with burns as well.' 'The cases that are the worst are the ones where it's children,' he said. 'In October 2023, I remember one child that really sank in because I think they were about nine or 10 and they had about 90 per cent burns and you know that they are not going to survive,' he told the Telegraph. 'There's nothing you can do. Even if there was not a conflict there, in that country, in that scenario, a 90 per cent burn when it's almost all full thickness is not going to survive. 'There's nothing you can do because you are short of supplies, to the point where it's even difficult to justify dressing the wounds because you need the dressings for patients that are going to survive. 'But then you are talking about a nine-year-old and some end of life dignity and unfortunately they don't die in a couple of hours, it takes four or five days, so you see this patient every four or five days, knowing full well that there's absolutely nothing you can do.' Over the past 35 years, he has worked in war zones and humanitarian crises such as South Sudan and Ukraine, but says the situation inside Gaza is particularly bad. The Hamas-run health ministry says more than 62,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the conflict. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but has said that women and children make up more than half the dead. Israel says those figures are inflated, others that they are underestimates. Recent months have seen a spate of mass shootings at aid distribution points run by the controversial new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) set up by the US and Israel to bypass United Nations-run distributions. Aid distributions have been marred by chaotic scenes and frequent reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations. The UN said this week that Israeli forces had killed over 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid in Gaza since the GHF began operations in May. Israel's military has disputed previous death tolls, but has said its troops have at times fired warning shots and it is investigating accusations of civilian deaths. 'A very, very unpleasant scenario' Dr Potokar said he witnessed the chaotic aftermath of one such shooting incident on June 1, when Nasser Hospital was flooded with casualties. He said: 'When that happens, it's just chaos because you have everyone coming in, you have relatives coming in, family coming, you have people screaming, you have one ambulance after another, then you have a truck coming in with bodies on the back of it. 'The casualty department becomes completely overwhelmed.' 'The concept of triage is very difficult when you get hundreds, not 20 but hundreds. 'There's lots of shouting, lots of screaming, it's a very, very unpleasant scenario to be in and quite tense.' Supplies were short in hospitals, he said, but the biggest limitations were in time and staff, because of the sheer number of casualties. Food shortages were also affecting patients and staff alike. Malnutrition was weakening patients, meaning they struggled to recover from surgery or heal. He said: 'Patients are skin and bone, they are not healing, they are getting infected more than they should be. Wounds are just stagnating because they are just not getting food.' On his most recent trip, he lost 24lb (11kg) over four weeks, despite taking his own food with him. Palestinian staff he worked alongside were increasingly fatalistic. He said: 'One half are just waiting to die, saying 'I probably won't see you next time because I will probably be dead' versus the others who are [looking for] any chance to get out.' The need for his skills and the relentless casualties meant he could not let the situation get to him while working, he said. 'Nobody wants you breaking down in tears and not being able to function, that's not going to help anyone. You have to just get on with the job, knowing that basically, what you are doing is lifting up the carpet, sweeping all the – whatever you want to call it: reaction, response, emotion whatever – underneath and putting the carpet back down and leaving it to come out at some other point.' He said he was more affected by the lack of response from the rest of the world to what he said was the 'world's first televised genocide'. Dr Omer Bartov, a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University, and former IDF soldier, recently wrote in the New York Times that Israel was no longer fighting a war against Hamas, but waging 'an operation of demolition and ethnic cleansing' in the ravaged enclave. 'I have been teaching classes on genocide for a quarter of a century. I can recognise one when I see one,' he added. Israel has strongly rejected claims, including at the UN's top court, that its actions in Gaza amount to a genocide. Dr Potokar said: 'We are putting plasters on a haemorrhaging aneurysm. The problem is the political initiative, the total lack of global, moral, ethical insight into this and desire to stop it.'
The Sun
23-07-2025
- Health
- The Sun
Warning after toddler, 3, left with second-degree burns and ‘plum-sized' blister from ‘Britain's most dangerous plant'
A TODDLER was left with second-degree burns and an agonising blister 'the size of a plum' after a brush with 'Britain's most dangerous plant'. Three-year-old Brooklyn Bone was picking flowers on the way to childcare when it's believed he was exposed to giant hogweed. 6 6 6 The next day a blister appeared on his finger, and that night 'it seemed to blow up', quadrupling in size as it filled with pus. Mum Hether Irving, 40, from Newcastle upon Tyne, said: 'He was only exposed to it for a matter of minutes. 'It was the next day, on Friday afternoon, that I noticed a small blister on the edge of his nail." Through the night the blister "blew up", and Hether said she knew at this point something was wrong. She continued: 'He was crying, holding his finger in the air, he couldn't have anything touch it, and he kept shaking. 'It blistered right the way down, half way to his knuckle, and by Saturday morning it was a huge pus-filled blister that had quadrupled in size. "It was the size of a plum." Little Brooklyn was taken to A&E at South Tyneside District Hospital. They advised he'd most likely had a brush with giant hogweed. Known as ' Britain's most dangerous plant ', it has sap that stops the skin protecting itself against the sun, leading to gruesome burns when exposed to daylight. And because it often causes no immediate pain, its victims can continue to burn in the sun heedless of any problem. On top of that, the plant can spread its sap with only a moment's exposure. At hospital, Brooklyn was put on the road to recovery. Hether, a beautician, said: 'They immediately took pictures and explained what they thought it was. 'They lanced it and drained the fluid off, and we were sent up to the burns unit at the Royal Victoria Infirmary where he's being treated for second-degree burns. 'They have said it'll take up to four weeks to fully heal, and we have been back to hospital twice to change dressings. 'Each time it was very painful but the nurses were excellent.' 6 6 6 There is the risk of longer term damage. Some victims of giant hogweed endure years of heightened sensitivity to sunlight where they were burned. Hether said: 'They've said if he goes in the sun in future, he needs factor 50 on his finger as it's now very dangerous, as he will burn because of the hogweed.' She continued: 'I urge people not to let their children touch bushes, or things that seem harmless. 'We were lucky it was only one finger, I can't imagine what that would be like if it was a full arm or leg. 'It was absolutely horrific. His skin was peeled off half way down his finger to prevent infection.' The giant hogweed is native to the Caucasus, but was introduced to Britain as an ornamental plant in 1817, and its spread has now got out of control. It was called 'without a shadow of a doubt, the most dangerous plant in Britain' by Mike Duddy, of the Mersey Basin Rivers Trust in 2015. Giant hogweed burns and how to deal with them Giant hogweed sap is found inside the leaves and stalks and can cause burns. The sap contains toxic chemicals called furanocoumarins. When the toxic chemicals come into contact with the skin, it causes a reaction. This reaction actually damages your DNA and changes the way your skin protects itself from ultraviolet (UV) light. This means your skin isn't able to protect itself properly from the sun. If the skin gets exposed to sunlight, it causes a severe burn. This chemical reaction can happen as quickly as 15 minutes after getting the sap on your skin. Redness and burn blisters can develop about 48 hours after exposed skin is in sunlight. The severity of the burn depends on how long you're in the sun. It can damage more than skin. If the sap gets in your eyes, giant hogweed can cause temporary or permanent blindness. Breathing in sap particles from the air can cause respiratory problems. What to do if you touch hogweed sap: Wash the area with mild soap and cool water as soon as you can. Keep the skin covered when you're outside to protect it from sunlight. The faster you're able to wash off the sap, the less possible damage it can cause. If a rash or blisters start to form, get medical attention.
