Burnt!

July 29th, 2023| Topic: RaMbLeS | 2

Apparently, it is so hot in Arizona these days that people who fall on the ground are suffering burns! Folks are being brought into the emergency room with significant, sometimes life-threatening burns caused just by falls.

Dr. Kevin Foster, director of burn services at the Arizona Burn Center at Valleywise Health:

This is really unusual—the number of patients that we’re seeing and the severity of injuries—the acuity of injuries is much higher.”

He added that every single one of the 45 beds in the burn center is full, and one-third of patients are people who fell and burned themselves on the ground. There are also burn patients in the ICU, and about half of those patients are people burned after falls.

The area has been hotter than usual, even for Arizona, and that, experts said, means that the ground can be dangerous for anyone whose bare skin comes into contact with it. Of course, asphalt is dark and dense. While concrete is lighter and reflects some sunlight, when the sun shines on asphalt, its dark color causes it to absorb light and it heats up. Since it is a dense material, it also holds the heat even after the sun has been shining on it. On a hot day, asphalt can easily be 40° to 60° hotter than the air. Recently, air temperatures reached 119°F. Phoenix had six consecutive days at or above 115° degrees by Saturday; the streak ended Sunday, with high temperatures reaching only 114°. Only!

Foster again:

It can take only a fraction of a second to get a pretty deep burn. For people who have been on the pavement for 10–20 minutes, the skin is completely destroyed and the damage often goes down deep, meaning it is a third-degree burn. These are really serious injuries, requiring multiple surgeries and having to spend weeks or even months in the hospital and then years of reconstructive surgery and therapy.”

While anyone can fall, people who tend to fall and get burned more often are elderly people with medical problems that make them unsteady, or people who are using intoxicants and passing out.

Dr. Frank LoVecchio, an emergency room doctor at Valleywise added:

I treated an elderly patient who fell out of her wheelchair. Almost instantly, he said, she got burns all over her legs. A number of the people coming in with burns are unhoused and have gotten burned sleeping or resting on the pavement.”

In Scripture, a major cause of burns is … God’s anger. And that directed against evil. In Psalm 89, bemoaning dire state of his nation, the psalmist pleads:

Until when, Yahweh—will You hide eternally?
Will Your wrath burn like fire?
Remember—I—what [is a] lifespan,
for what emptiness have You created all humanity?
What person can stay alive and not see death?
Can he liberate his soul from the hand of Sheol?
Where are Your former lovingkindnesses, Lord?
Psalm 89:46–49

Indeed, the transience of our lives causes us also to plead with God to relent from his burning wrath.

Life is short and everyone will die. Lord, why do you add to our burdens?”

But the people of a God, who has taken care of our eternal problem of sin in Jesus Christ, will continue to trust in God. Instead—and the psalm ends this way without any resolution of the angst:

Blessed be Yahweh forever.
Amen and amen.
Psalm 89:52

We will bless him, no matter what. We will be faithful to him, no matter what.

SOURCES: CNN