How did it happen? I've always wondered...

@AmbiePam (84628)
United States
October 24, 2011 3:51pm CST
A lot of you know about the car accident I had years ago that resulted in several back and neck surgeries. What I may not have mentioned is that in the same car accident I also got a large 2nd degree burn on my upper right arm. Later, I had to have reconstructive surgery on it. Here is what I have wondered for the last 12 years: how did I get the burn? I never lost consciousness. My car flipped about six times and came to rest upside down. There was no fire. It could not have been a seatbelt burn due to friction, because the seat belt was over my left upper arm, not the right one. So my seatbelt never got close to touching my burned arm. As far as I can tell my skin never made contact with the concrete of the road, so no friction burn there. So, does anyone have any idea? Also, is there something you have always wondered about, but had no idea how it happened? Like knowing you locked your car doors, but coming back to find them unlocked with no trace of anyone breaking in? Anything similar?
6 people like this
12 responses
@catdla1 (6005)
• United States
24 Oct 11
If your car rolled about six times, you had to have been in a constant state of motion during that time, so anything rubbing against you could have made the burn. If your car was also sliding on the pavement, while rolling, anything metal would have been hot, or maybe there was some vinyl that melted and touched your skin. As far as fawlty memories, whatever I'm looking for at any given moment (like my glasses), I always swear that I'd left them somewhre other than where I found them.
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
24 Oct 11
No vinyl, and as far as I could tell, my skin never touched the pavement. If it had, I think my shirt would have been torn. But the burn was beneath the shirt sleeve. However, it did throw me from being upright, straight into the backseat. Maybe it was something back there. To give you an example, I had a cassette tape in the cassette player. The force of it all dislodged it from playing to the back seat where half of me ended up.
1 person likes this
@catdla1 (6005)
• United States
24 Oct 11
It was probably the friction from your shirt sleeve that caused it. Even something as soft as silk can cause a friction burn. Ever put on a pair of shoes that feel great, until two hours later when you have blisters?
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
25 Oct 11
Yes, but that was because I was wearing a pair of shoes 2 sizes too small. lol I just had to borrow them from my sister!
@GardenGerty (157027)
• United States
24 Oct 11
No hot liquids coming from your radiator? Was the upholstery vinyl, that could have caused an injury from friction. On the car door situation, I can see that happening if they are electronic. At this moment, I do not have any mysteries that I can think of like you describe. Watch me come up with a million of them later.
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
24 Oct 11
It wasn't vinyl, no. I hadn't that about the radiator, but if it had been the radiator, wouldn't my shirt have been dirty or torn? I was wearing two t-shirts on top of each other, and neither were burned. All they had on them was blood from the cuts and burn.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157027)
• United States
24 Oct 11
In that case I wonder if with all of that flipping the sleeve maybe was pulled tightly against your upper arm and cut it or burned it with friction.
1 person likes this
• United States
25 Oct 11
I was in a car accident a year ago and got a long burn on my right arm. This was a result of the airbag inflating which caused friction and also from the chemicals released from the bag it seemed as if my car was filled with smoke. IMO this could perhaps have been the cause of your burn.
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
25 Oct 11
My car didn't have air bags. Funny thing, until I got my current vehicle, I had never had a car with air bags! lol
@LittleMel (8742)
• Canada
25 Oct 11
it will come to you in time Ambie there was something bugged me for a long time. not going into details here. it happened in my childhood and only a few months ago that it came clear to me. just saying that in time it will be clear
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
26 Oct 11
I'm sorry you are going through such a rough time right now.
@carolscash (9492)
• United States
24 Oct 11
It is hard to tell how you got the burn. Our you sure that you never hit it on something or that your shirt didn't rub it too hard? I get bruises all the time that I do not know where they have come from and so I really don't even wonder anymore.
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
24 Oct 11
The size and depth of the burn appear to be caused by something more than just the shirt rubbing hard, but that could be it. I mean I am no expert on just how hard a shirt CAN rub against the skin, so it's possible.
@WakeUpKitty (8694)
• Netherlands
24 Oct 11
There are many ways people can get a burn. It might be happend without you knowing because your mind was busy with other things, or feeling other pain. It can happend during rescue/helping you, fluid, acid etc. Do you have any idea if you already had that burn as you were taken to the hospital? It can be happend on the way to it or even in the hospital.
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
24 Oct 11
I felt the pain of the burn as soon as the car stopped rolling. It was the first thing I noticed. I wondered if it had anything to do with the sunlight shining on the broken glass in the back seat where I was thrown?
@flowerchilde (12529)
• United States
26 Oct 11
I can't think of anything like that but I always knew I shouldn't leave my keys in my vehicle when warming it up in the wintertime, unless I have a spare key or lodge something in the door, like a glove or scarf, so it won't close all the way. Surely enough one day when walking away from the vehicle I heard the locks all lock on the doors. I've never figured out why once in a while the doors will lock on their own with no action on my part, making it possible to be locked out of my vehicle while it's running.. I just think it's weird and my natural paranoid thinking actually proved to be true for once..
1 person likes this
@katsmeow1213 (28719)
• United States
24 Oct 11
My first thought was friction burn from something.. not sure what, perhaps just the inside of the car door, or the seat.. or something. I was in a bad car accident back in the winter of 2001. I was driving hubby's pick up truck and hit a slippery patch in the road. I lost control of the car, hit the guard rails on both sides a few times (like a pinball machine), then finally stopped when another car hit me. I still have some neck problems to this day from that accident. What dawned on me after the accident was I think in my panic I might have accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake when I started slipping. I can't remember, and I'll never know forsure. I can't really think of anything off the top of my head that I've always wondered about, nothing specific anyway. Although I am wondering right now how my brand new shoes managed to disappear without a trace!
1 person likes this
@paula27661 (15811)
• Australia
26 Oct 11
I was not aware of your accident, how scary for you not to mention painful! Like you, I have no idea how your arm got burned, the only thing I can think of is some kind of friction like you said. Your arm may have touched metal that had become hot from rubbing against something. ..I guess you may never have the answer but I am sure glad you are still here to tell the tale! I was dumped once by a boy when I was in sixth grade, he told me that he would get back with me if I never behaved the way I did again and to this day I have no idea what he was talking about! I lost touch with him many years ago so I guess I will never know either.
1 person likes this
@saphrina (31552)
• South Africa
25 Oct 11
Gee wizz sweetie. That sounds like one horrible accident. I'm just glad you are fine now though. I cannot think how you got that burn though. Nothing ever happened to me that i don't know what caused it.
1 person likes this
• United States
24 Oct 11
I am wondering if perhaps with all the flipping the car did if maybe your arm kept hitting something like the door and or steering wheel which caused for the burn. I do recall a few times when I was in my home that I swear I lock the door to come home and find it open. I swear that after thinking, and thinking I ended up puzzled as it would not be like me to leave it open. But then I wonder if since locking my door is so repetitive for me that maybe those times I somehow forgot? Reason why I concluded that is that there was no explanation after.
1 person likes this
• United States
25 Oct 11
You had to be in contact with something hot. Like maybe a part of the engine came through the car and burned you or something. I'm just glad that you recovered as well as you did.
1 person likes this