When Medical Professionals Cause the Pain They Were Meant to Prevent
Hospitals are places of healing. Patients place their trust—sometimes their lives—in the hands of professionals trained to protect them. But when that trust is shattered by a preventable burn injury, the damage is both physical and psychological. Burns aren’t just painful; they’re traumatic. And when they happen under medical supervision, they are almost always a sign that something went terribly wrong.
At Van Wey, Metzler & Williams, we represent individuals in Oklahoma City who have suffered severe, life-altering burns due to medical negligence. These are not accidents. These are breaches of protocol, failures of oversight, and moments of carelessness with consequences that last a lifetime.
Burns Should Never Happen in a Hospital
Medical providers know how to prevent burns. There are strict protocols and well-established safety measures designed to avoid everything from minor scalds to catastrophic surgical fires. So when a patient is burned in a medical setting, it’s often because those protocols were ignored or shortcuts were taken.
Too often, hospitals downplay what happened. They refer to burns as "unfortunate events" or "known complications." But we know better. In almost every case we’ve seen, the injury could—and should—have been prevented.
When hospitals cause harm instead of healing, they must be held accountable.
How Burn Injuries Occur in Medical Settings
While many people associate burn injuries with fires or industrial accidents, some of the most devastating burn cases we’ve seen have occurred inside hospitals and under anesthesia:
Surgical Fires: Operating rooms are filled with oxygen, flammable materials, and high-heat tools like electrocautery devices and lasers. A single spark can ignite a fire on or inside the patient’s body—especially when providers don’t follow basic fire safety procedures.
Improper Use of Medical Devices: Heating pads, warming blankets, and hot packs used to maintain body temperature can cause deep thermal burns if left too long or set too high—particularly for patients who are unconscious or sedated and unable to voice discomfort.
Chemical Burns: Improperly stored or applied antiseptics, adhesives, or topical treatments can lead to caustic chemical injuries, especially on sensitive skin or open wounds.
Radiation Burns: Inadequately calibrated radiation treatments for cancer or diagnostic errors can cause extensive tissue damage, blistering, and permanent scarring.
These injuries don’t happen in chaotic emergencies. They happen in controlled environments, under the watch of trained staff—who either weren’t watching closely enough or didn’t take the risks seriously.
The Long-Term Consequences of a Burn Injury
Burn injuries are uniquely brutal. They affect not just the skin, but the entire identity and independence of the person who was harmed.
Patients with serious burns may face:
Multiple reconstructive surgeries
Intensive wound care and infection risks
Chronic pain or neuropathy
Permanent scarring and disfigurement
Restricted mobility due to contractures
Psychological trauma, PTSD, and depression
Loss of employment or ability to work
In many cases, patients report that the emotional scars—the shame, the isolation, the changed way the world looks at them—are as devastating as the physical ones. When the burn was caused by negligence in a setting that was supposed to be safe, that pain only deepens.
Why These Cases Are Often Dismissed—and Why We Don’t Let That Happen
Hospitals and insurers will often try to minimize burn injury cases, arguing that:
“The patient had a preexisting condition.”
“There was a necessary risk during surgery.”
“There’s no definitive proof of negligence.”
But we know how to uncover what actually happened. Our team works with:
Fire safety specialists
Burn surgeons
Operating room protocol experts
Biomedical engineers and device specialists
We reconstruct the scene, analyze records, and expose failures in supervision, maintenance, training, or decision-making. And we do it because you deserve more than a vague apology—you deserve justice.
Why Oklahoma City Families and Patients Choose Van Wey, Metzler & Williams
We don’t just dabble in medical malpractice. We live and breathe it. We’ve built our practice around holding the healthcare industry accountable when it causes catastrophic harm.
Families and patients trust us because:
We limit our caseload to focus on the most serious cases
We bring in the top medical and technical experts in the country
We have decades of experience litigating hospital negligence
We understand the human side of suffering—and we never forget who we’re fighting for
Founder Kay Van Wey is a nationally recognized patient safety advocate. She has helped bring justice in some of the most difficult and high-profile medical cases in the country. Her leadership drives our firm’s mission: to expose negligence, pursue accountability, and change lives.
Your Injury Wasn’t Your Fault. Your Recovery Shouldn’t Be Your Burden.
If you or a loved one suffered a serious burn injury in a hospital or medical setting—during surgery, in recovery, or under supervision—don’t accept silence or excuses.
You deserve answers. You deserve compensation. And you deserve a legal team who won’t stop until you have both.
