When a burn patient is thirsty, they may drink a small amount of diluted salt water.

ANSWER · A

Severely burned patients often feel thirsty because body fluids leak from the wound after a large area of skin is burned, reducing blood volume and water content. Greater thirst indicates a more severe injury. Burn patients should not be given plain boiled water when thirsty, because burns also cause loss of sodium and salt. Plain boiled water alone can further reduce sodium chloride concentration in the blood and the osmotic pressure of extracellular fluid, causing intracellular edema and possibly cerebral or pulmonary edema ("water intoxication"), which can endanger life. Give them salt-containing drinks instead.

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