Ron Taylor wrote in a message to Alan Rackmill:
AR> RW> Even if you soak a towel in boiling water and put it on
  > RW> your body you are not going to wind up $200,000 worth
  > RW> of medical cost.
AR>I don't know what the cost of her medical treatment was, but it was high.
 RT> Agreed... medical costs are high, but not THAT high.  After
 RT> a heart attack, two trips to the hospital, four
 RT> catheterizations, angioplasty, athrectomy, and open heart
 RT> surgery with four arterial bypasses, my total bill was just
 RT> over $150,000.  I don't see how you could get anywhere NEAR
 RT> $200,000 for a coffee burn.
Agreed.
AR>And I have to disagree with you about the severity if the burn 
AR>when
  >scalding fluid is kept on the skin my the fabric in the clothing.
  >In fact, that is what caused the burns to be as severe as they were.
 RT> It would hurt, granted, but the fabric would insulate the
 RT> skin from the most severe affects of the hot liquid which
 RT> would cool tremendously before it actually contacted the
 RT> skin.  
Depends on the thickness of the clothing.
But, the fabric will retain the hot liquid in its position touching the skin, 
and the heat was high enough for long enough that the burns were quite 
cere.
To test this, take a hand towel, fold it up and place it in the sink.
Then, take a teapot full of boiling water and pour it on the towel.
Check how long it takes to cool off enough so that you can touch it wthout 
burning yourself.
You will be surprised.
You also would be surprised at how fast the skin will burn at that high 
temperature.
 RT> The air around the wet fabric would accelerate the
 RT> cooling of the liquid.  It certainly was not kept at a
 RT> "scalding" temperature in contact with the skin by the
 RT> fabric. The affect would be a "flash" at best.
It does not cool off that qwuickly, and the damage was much more than 
flash".
Actually, the one thing that was not in question was the damage done by the 
coffee.
There were photos documentating the injuries, and all the medical testimony 
on both sides stipulated to degree of injury.
And it was severe.
 RT> I doubt that she would have even gone to the hospital if the
 RT> exact circumstances would have occurred at home with her own
 RT> water. At most, they would have put some salve on it and
 RT> sent her home. No way would she have been admitted.
AR> RW> Of course you ain't going to be want get frisky with
  > RW> the wife for a while :).
 RT> If I remember correctly, one of the points that her lawyers
 RT> dramatized to the jury was that her ability to have children
 RT> "might" be temporarily hampered by the incident.  At 83, I
 RT> can see where that could be a problem :).
True.
Alan
Team OS/2,
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