I was reading about some burn victims from summer fires in Greece, and some succumbed to their burns more than 3 months after they were originally exposed to the flames. Shouldn’t they be in the clear at that point given burn wounds heal over time?
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This is regarding severe and extensive burns.
The ones who die months later fro their burns will have been extremely unwell between the initial burn and death. It won’t be that they recovered and then got again, at least really not likely.
Our skin has lots of different functions. In the time immediately after a very extensive burn: the leading causes of death are smoke inhalation lung damage or overwhelming infection (our skin is a really effective barrier). But the body is put under further stress because the skin being intact stops us loosing a lot of water from our body, likewise lots of electrolytes, and helps us regulate our temperature. In extensive burns these issue would be massive
If we survive, the skin will start to heal, areas will get skin grafts (if there is enough unaffected areas to take a graft from) and any other closing techniques possible. But any ongoing issues in other organs may be ongoing. Kidneys may have packed in for multiple reasons, and the kidney is a big thing in water balance in the body. With a lot of skin that is there not functioning properly (the badly scarred skin won’t sweat normally) this makes it even more difficult to manage that. You’ll also have lost a lot of muscle mass, likely be malnourished from so long presumably in ITU so body functions compromised (there is a lot artificial nutrition can do but it’s not perfect esp in a person who continues to be very sick). You may still have tubes and lines in your body and they are a potential entry point for infection. All of this adds up to a very poorly working body that something simple that a healthy body to cope with finally getting you (eg chest infection).
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