Burn Injuries

Types of burn injuries, and the case experience
of Casey Gerry’s San Diego burn attorneys

San Diego burn attorney and Casey Gerry Partner Robert Francavilla recently settled a case for a young woman who was severely burned in a restaurant. She had ordered a flaming dessert which was prepared table side. The waiter, who had only prepared this dessert once before, used a 150 proof rum whose label explicitly warned that it was not to be used for flaming preparations. The waiter poured the rum into the pan while it was still on the open flame, and the rum exploded. The waiter panicked, and dumped the contents of the pan onto our client. The flames engulfed her, severely burning her arm, face, and upper body. She was transported by Life Flight to UC San Diego’s Burn Center, and there required extensive hospital care, including several large skin grafts. Despite state of the art care at the Burn Center, she has prominent scarring both at the burn sites and the sites of the skin graft. She and her pre-school age son, who was with her in the restaurant have both suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, with persistent psychological symptoms of severe anxiety and panic, flashbacks, and sleep disturbance.

San Diego burn attorney Robert Francavilla argued that the restaurant was negligent in allowing an inexperienced staff person to prepare the flaming dessert, and that the waiter’s failure to read the label, and his dumping the flaming alcohol onto his client constituted negligence. The case was settled for a substantial sum, which will enable this young woman and her son to work on coping with the aftermath of this serious and preventable trauma.