Eli5 How do people die from from burns? The fire can be out, the person can conscious, and there skin can appear to have no bruising or blood loss. How do they die in the hospital days later?

Question

There is a video I saw of two guys being set on fire in a fight where one has his flames extinguished within seconds of being lit but succumbed to the burns months later. How? Being that perhaps the first layer of skin is now literally burned off what leads to the person passing even though they were perfectly awake The whole time with no stab wounds, broken bones, etc. ?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Being awake has nothing to do with how badly you are injured. Your body’s inflammatory response to burns also is likely to throw off your fluid balance and put you into shock – the resulting collapse in blood pressure can cause damage to all of your vital organs. If you survive that, you are still wide open to all kinds of infections. Your skin is a vital organ and major disruption of it can easily kill you.