Straub Medical Center Burn Unit
Honolulu, Hawaii

About the Straub Medical Center Burn Unit

The Straub Medical Center Burn Unit is Hawaii's primary ABA-verified burn treatment facility, serving the entire state of Hawaii from its Honolulu location on Oahu. Straub Medical Center is a flagship institution of Hawaii Pacific Health, the state's largest health care system, and has long been the go-to destination for serious and complex burn injuries across the Hawaiian Islands. The burn unit handles acute wound stabilization, surgical debridement, skin grafting, donor site management, and long-term rehabilitative care, treating patients with injuries ranging from minor occupational burns to life-threatening multi-system trauma.

Because Hawaii is a geographically isolated island chain, Straub's burn unit serves a uniquely concentrated catchment area. Patients are transported from Maui, the Big Island, Kauai, Molokai, and Lanai to Honolulu when their burns exceed the capabilities of neighbor island hospitals and clinics. This statewide referral role means the burn unit sees the full spectrum of Hawaii's occupational and recreational burn hazards: construction and renovation workers from Oahu's active building sector, hotel and resort employees from the tourism economy, military personnel and contractors from the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam complex, maritime workers from Honolulu Harbor operations, and agricultural workers from legacy industries on the outer islands.

Treatment at an ABA-verified burn center like Straub carries significant legal weight. Insurance adjusters, defense attorneys, and juries understand that ABA verification signals the highest level of specialized burn care — and that patients treated there sustained injuries serious enough to require advanced burn surgery and intensive burn rehabilitation. For burn injury claimants, Straub treatment records are foundational evidence of injury severity and the full scope of damages.

Hawaii's Regional Burn Hazards

Hawaii's economy and geography create a distinctive and concentrated set of burn injury risks. The state's reliance on tourism, military presence, maritime industry, and ongoing construction activity means burn hazards are woven through multiple major sectors. Key local burn hazards include:

• Hotel and resort operations: Hawaii's massive tourism and hospitality industry employs tens of thousands of workers in hotels, resorts, restaurants, and event venues. Commercial kitchen grease fires, deep fryer burns, banquet equipment malfunctions, and laundry facility steam and chemical burns are recurring occupational hazards for resort employees statewide.
• Military contracting and base operations: Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Schofield Barracks, Marine Corps Base Hawaii, and numerous other installations create significant burn exposure through weapons handling, fuel operations, aircraft maintenance, and base infrastructure work. Both active-duty personnel and civilian contractors face serious burn risks from jet fuel, munitions, and high-voltage electrical systems.
• Construction and renovation: Oahu's persistent development activity — including resort renovation, residential construction, and infrastructure projects — creates significant electrical arc flash, welding, and open-flame burn hazards. Workers on high-rise construction, underground utility projects, and commercial renovation face elevated risk from both thermal and chemical burns.
• Maritime and harbor operations: Honolulu Harbor handles a large volume of cargo, interisland freight, and commercial vessel traffic. Fuel loading, welding and cutting operations, engine room fires, and chemical spills aboard vessels create serious burn risks for longshoremen, merchant mariners, and harbor workers covered by federal maritime law.
• Agricultural and plantation industry: Sugar cane burning — historically common on the Big Island and Maui — and current agricultural operations involving pesticides, fertilizers, and fuel storage create chemical and thermal burn risks for farm workers. Processing facilities on neighbor islands handle caustic chemicals that can cause serious contact burns.
• Volcanic and geothermal activity: The Big Island's active volcanic environment creates unique burn risks for residents, utility workers, and researchers near lava flows and geothermal energy operations. Lava burns, laze (lava haze) inhalation injuries, and geothermal steam injuries are documented causes of serious burns in Hawaii.

Your Legal Rights After Treatment at Straub

Hawaii law provides burn injury victims with multiple routes to compensation that often work in combination. If you were injured at work, Hawaii's workers' compensation system is a mandatory, no-fault program that provides immediate coverage for medical treatment — including all care at Straub's burn unit — and temporary total disability benefits at two-thirds of your average weekly wage. Hawaii workers' comp is the exclusive remedy against your direct employer, meaning you generally cannot sue your employer in civil court for a workplace injury.

However, workers' compensation is not your only option. Hawaii law allows you to pursue a separate third-party personal injury lawsuit against any party other than your direct employer who contributed to causing your injury. On a construction site, that may include the general contractor, site owner, or a subcontractor. In a hotel or resort setting, it could include an equipment manufacturer, a chemical supplier, or a property management company. In maritime cases, federal admiralty law — including the Jones Act for seamen — may provide rights that go well beyond what state workers' comp provides, including claims for unseaworthiness and maintenance and cure.

Hawaii follows a modified comparative fault system with a 51% bar: you can recover damages as long as you are not more than 50% at fault for your own injury, and your recovery is reduced in proportion to your share of fault. Hawaii's statute of limitations for personal injury claims is 2 years under Haw. Rev. Stat. § 657-7, running from the date of injury. Claims involving government entities — including military bases, state facilities, or county operations — may require notice filings within shorter windows. Missing these deadlines can permanently bar your claim.

How Straub Burn Unit Records Strengthen Your Claim

Treatment records from the Straub Medical Center Burn Unit are among the most powerful pieces of evidence in a Hawaii burn injury case. The clinical specificity of burn center records translates directly into legal damages in ways that general emergency department records cannot match. Your Straub records may include:

• Burn mapping diagrams documenting the total body surface area (TBSA) affected and the depth classification of wounds (first, second, third, or fourth degree)
• Surgical reports detailing debridement procedures, skin grafting, donor site harvesting, and wound coverage operations
• Respiratory therapy records reflecting inhalation injury severity, intubation, and ventilator dependence during acute care
• Intensive care unit records showing hemodynamic monitoring, fluid resuscitation volumes, infection management, and critical care interventions
• Occupational and physical therapy documentation of functional limitations, contracture formation, range-of-motion deficits, and rehabilitation progress
• Psychiatric and psychological consultation records capturing the mental health impact of disfiguring injuries, post-traumatic stress, and adjustment disorders

Defense attorneys and insurance carriers will scrutinize these records in detail. A burn injury attorney who understands the clinical significance of each entry can use the same records to demonstrate the full, ongoing impact of your injuries and the total compensation you are owed.