Although medical advances have remarkably increased the survival rate of the severely burned, such patients still encounter physical and psychological pain and disability, disfigurement, and social rejection. Rising from the Flames examines the experience of the severely burned as survivors confront it, not just as a medical event but as a human ordeal involving social, cultural, psychological, and medical trauma. It discusses the causes of burns, the physiology of injury and healing, the forms of isolation burn patients endure, and the cultural meaning attached to burns and burned persons.
Rising From the Flames is a unique scholarly publication, a blended approach to burns, with material one would expect from an academic department of classics or philosophy and from a school of medicine. Once begun, one cannot put it down, carried along by a well-wrought structure and flowing, often beautiful prose, even for horrific injuries.
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May 17, 2002: Rising from the Flames is an excellent book and a must read for anyone who either is or knows a burn survivor. I bought the book when a relative of mine was burned. I had no idea what to expect of his treatment or his emotional state. This book answered almost all of my questions and provided me with excellent and accurate information. Burns are something we never think about until we are incredibly involved with them. This book will provide you with information to help you cope with the healing and recovery period while getting you up to speed on burn injuries. I highly recommend it.