[Bob]

...leaving him on life support with second-degree burns,...

Sorry, can't buy it. Unless those second-degree burns were directly in his lungs, second-degree burns aren't going to put him on life support.

[JDW11235]

“Sorry, can’t buy it. Unless those second-degree burns were directly in his lungs, second-degree burns aren’t going to put him on life support.”

While I haven’t read the story, I beg to differ. My background is in medicine, and I can attest that second degree burns can put you on life support. You can die from a few min exposure in a too hot, hot tub (135º-145º), you can go into shock even faster. If he had a pot of scalding/boiling water (200º+) thrown on him, he could have gone into shock, had a heart attack, or gotten heat stroke. Humans are subject to heat extremes just like food, and you can cook food(albeit not well), at temperatures far below 212º.

People can and do die from both excessive heat, and pain. Just something to consider.

[Mr. Silverback]

Severe burns have a massive effect on the body and cause all sorts of systematic problems. A guy I know was burned in a Humvee accident in Iraq and he was not only on life support and in an induced coma for weeks, at one point the only way they could protect his intestines from the swelling of his abdominal muscles was to place most of his bowel outside his body under irrigated bandages.

Some burn victims can't breathe properly because of the swelling and restriction of the burned skin interfering with the mechanical process of getting the air in and out.