5 ms·

Hi. I have worked in a burn unit. Inhalational injury is usually not the cause of death. In fact of the people I saw only one who died of bronchoscopy-confirmed

Hi. I have worked in a burn unit. Inhalational injury is usually not the cause of death. In fact of the people I saw only one who died of bronchoscopy-confirmed inhalational injury. And he was an obese smoker with minimal residual lung volume to begin with.

niels_olson 14y ago
Also, in the Navy, where halon is also in heavy distribution, for fuel fires (nothing scarier than a fuel fire on a ship at sea), the training still includes that the person who smells smoke needs to find the fire, or at least some legit smoke before exiting the space. Most watch standees now have radios, which makes the decision of when to call a lot easier.
saraid216 14y ago
This seems to imply that most people who die are burn victims? (It feels like this is a stupid question, but I'm not sure of the answer so eh. Asking anyways.) Would people at risk of a inhalation injury actually pass through you often? You're in a burn unit, so I'd assume that means you mostly get burn victims, and inhalation injuries would be pointed somewhere else?
- niels_olson 14y ago
  > imply that most people who die are burn victims Inhalation injury is a subset of burn trauma. The flow control is "Ambulance inbound from fire" -> ER calls trauma alert -> trauma team meets the ambulance(s) at the ER door. Those with inhalation injury are sorted from there.
konstruktor 14y ago
Sorry, but this is selection bias. You won't even see all the people who die of smoke inhalation without any burns.
- niels_olson 14y ago
  In this case, a mid-size city, the burn unit was also the trauma ICU. On the trauma team, we responded to all trauma calls at the ER door. It just so happened that all burns in the area also came to us, and thus passed through our trauma/burn unit. So, I doubt there was much selection bias in this case.

5 ms·

Hi. I have worked in a burn unit. Inhalational injury is usually not the cause of death. In fact of the people I saw only one who died of bronchoscopy-confirmed

by niels_olson 14y ago

niels_olson 14y ago
Also, in the Navy, where halon is also in heavy distribution, for fuel fires (nothing scarier than a fuel fire on a ship at sea), the training still includes that the person who smells smoke needs to find the fire, or at least some legit smoke before exiting the space. Most watch standees now have radios, which makes the decision of when to call a lot easier.
saraid216 14y ago
This seems to imply that most people who die are burn victims? (It feels like this is a stupid question, but I'm not sure of the answer so eh. Asking anyways.) Would people at risk of a inhalation injury actually pass through you often? You're in a burn unit, so I'd assume that means you mostly get burn victims, and inhalation injuries would be pointed somewhere else?
- niels_olson 14y ago
  > imply that most people who die are burn victims Inhalation injury is a subset of burn trauma. The flow control is "Ambulance inbound from fire" -> ER calls trauma alert -> trauma team meets the ambulance(s) at the ER door. Those with inhalation injury are sorted from there.
konstruktor 14y ago
Sorry, but this is selection bias. You won't even see all the people who die of smoke inhalation without any burns.
- niels_olson 14y ago
  In this case, a mid-size city, the burn unit was also the trauma ICU. On the trauma team, we responded to all trauma calls at the ER door. It just so happened that all burns in the area also came to us, and thus passed through our trauma/burn unit. So, I doubt there was much selection bias in this case.