Burns and Scalds: Medicolegal Aspects

Key points

• • A burn is injury from dry heat or flame, while a scald is injury from a hot liquid or steam; both are graded by their depth.
• • A key forensic question is whether the burns happened during life or after death, judged by the vital reaction such as red blistering with fluid.
• • Signs that a person was alive in a fire include soot in the airways and a raised level of carbon monoxide in the blood.
• • The pattern of the burns helps to tell accident from suicide or homicide, such as dowry-related burns in some settings.
• • Death from burns may be early, from shock or airway injury, or later, from infection and the failure of organs.