How to Foil a Burn

At one point during my four month hike, bike and kayak trip, I was on the bike and passing through Tonopah NV. I stopped to eat and when the waitress was filling my cup with hot water, I don’t drink coffee because caffeine and I disagree, I mentioned that she was being awfully cautious.

She said, ” I’m really careful after yesterday. I spilled boiling water on my hand and don’t want to do that again.” Then she told me what she did to help heal the burn and stop the pain. The chef told me to immediately wrap my hand in aluminum foil, not to wash it off with cold water or put anything else on it. He also said to leave the foil on for about two hours or at least until all the pain was gone.”

She showed me her hand and it looked like she had gotten slightly sunburned. It didn’t appear there’d be any scarring, and even though the skin looked pretty dry, no loss of skin. I’d never heard of that before and filed it away in the back of my mind under “well, maybe.”

It’s strange how things, like bananas, come in bunches. Later on the same trip I had two other people tell they had used the same aluminum foil procedure when they’d gotten burned. I don’t remember the exact circumstances of those two but it seems one was also with boiling water. I moved it up a few notches from “well maybe” to “I’ll have to remember that.”

Since returning from our Canadian trip my main focus has been on getting the yard back in shape and concentrating on increasing the gas mileage in my 49 Dodge truck. When I rebuilt it the engine was changed to a V-8, with an automatic transmission and the gas mileage wasn’t anything to write about. With all the things that are going on in the World it seems like a good idea to get something better than 12+ MPG, at least to me. I’d read up on some of the things that had been done and had bought some of the stuff on the market, most of which did nothing at all except change my bank balance. One add-on didn’t increase the mileage but made the spark plugs last longer so it was still in use. Other than that, everything else had gone the way of things that have no value. One of the other things I’d wanted to do for a long time was to get the replacement gas tank out of the truck bed and in the hole where the original had been before it rotted completely out, beyond repair. Finding a gas tank for a 49 Dodge that fit proved to be impossible so I decided to build one.

While welding the new tank, which I had balanced on one end, it started to fall over and I reached over to grab it. I weld with my right hand and had the oxy/acetylene torch in that hand. I’m also right handed and my first response when grabbing something, is right handed. The problem was, my left hand was in a direct line with the welding torch. I burned the entire length of my left index finger from the first knuckle to the base of the fingernail. The week before I’d taken an American Red Cross recertification class for CPR and first aid. In the class we’d discussed burns and I had brought up the Tonaopah and other aluminum foil stories so they were fresh in my mind. I’d also been wrapping exhaust pipes and gas lines in foil as part of the mileage project and had a roll of foil handy.

I wrapped the finger in foil and almost immediately the pain went from “wanting to jump up and down”, to a sting and that was gone in about 20 minutes. The top layers of skin had lifted and turned yellow before I could get the foil on. That evening when I was through working, I took off the foil and everything looked pretty good. By the next day most of the finger didn’t appear to have been burned except where I had ripped the skin off while pulling my hands out of my lap and caught the finger on the edge of the computer desk.

Six days later the only place there was any indication of an injury was where I’d ripped the skin. Since then I’ve moved the procedure up to “Wow, I’m impressed.”
All burns can be serious, especially burns caused by chemicals, oils, greases or substances that can imbed themselves in the wound and need special treatments. One should always consult with a qualified professional because burns can easily become infected. But, on the way to the doctor it may prove judicious to wrap it in aluminum foil.

When I was relating the above to a friend he mentioned it to another who was standing near by. The other’s retort was, “Foil on a burn?” as if it was a dumb thing to do. Isn’t it amazing how we can be so smart sometimes that it limits our learning capability.