Expert: Neal Okerson - 3/22/2005

Question
Neal,
If I sent you a portion of my story to read--the scene where he is involved in the fire--would you be able to tell my how extensive his injuries would be knowing how long & how close to the fire he was?
thanks,
Jen
-------------------------
Followup To
Question -
I am writing a fictional story about a boy involved in a house/barn fire and wondered what his injuries might be due to smoke inhalation? Is this something you are knowledgable in?
thank-you!
Answer -
Jen,
The two main lung problems with a fire are: carbon monoxide poisoning and lung injury due to the burns. The lungs can heal if the injuries are not too severe, but would require the person to be on a mechanical ventilator until they have a chance to heal. If it is too severe, then the lungs will no longer be able to provide enough gas exchange (even on a ventilator) to maintain life. The formation of scar tissue can be a problem, too.

The treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning is high concentrations of oxygen. The diagnosis for carbon monoxide poisoning is done drawing and analyzing arterial blood gases.

Hope this helps you.

Neal

Answer
Jen,
With the variability of fires I could make the injuries appear logical. Also - if you don't mind waiting a few days, I have a friend who works for the fire department. Between the two of us we should be able to be fairly accurate. I am not sure about how the allexperts system handles larger volume of texts. If you want you can email it to me directly at neal.okerson@kctcs.edu (this is at work). I can open Microsoft word files and maybe Microsoft works. I may have a converter for WordPerfect, too. If you email it, put something about allexperts in the subject line so I don't accidentally delete it.


Neal