If you or a family member was treated at the Arnold Luterman Regional Burn Center in Mobile, your medical records document the exact severity of your injuries — burn depth, total body surface area, surgeries, and rehabilitation. That documentation is powerful evidence in a burn injury claim, and Alabama's 2-year statute of limitations means the time to act is now.
The Arnold Luterman Regional Burn Center, based at USA Health University Hospital and affiliated with the University of South Alabama, is one of the oldest dedicated burn treatment programs in the country and the primary regional burn resource for the central Gulf Coast. It serves a catchment area that reaches across southern Alabama, the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and the western Florida Panhandle — a region defined by shipbuilding, petrochemical production, offshore energy, and heavy port activity.
The center provides the full continuum of acute burn care: fluid resuscitation and critical care management of large burns, serial debridement and skin grafting, treatment of inhalation and airway injuries, and multidisciplinary reconstruction and rehabilitation. Its academic affiliation means the clinical documentation generated for each patient is thorough, standardized, and scientifically grounded — exactly the kind of record that carries weight in a burn injury claim.
Because the Mobile region concentrates so many high-hazard industries in a relatively small geographic footprint, the Luterman center regularly treats burns arising from shipyard hot work, refinery and chemical-plant incidents, offshore rig accidents, and paper-mill process failures. Many of these injuries involve sophisticated third-party liability questions and, for maritime and offshore workers, overlapping federal law.
Mobile is one of the busiest working ports on the Gulf of Mexico, and its industrial base generates a distinctive set of serious burn hazards. Shipbuilding and ship-repair operations along the Mobile River and Mobile Bay involve constant welding, torch cutting, and confined-space hot work. The petrochemical and chemical-manufacturing corridor stretching along the coast handles volatile hydrocarbons and corrosive process chemicals at enormous scale. Offshore oil and gas platforms in the Gulf add rig fires and flash-burn exposure, and the region's paper and pulp mills operate high-pressure steam systems and caustic bleaching chemistry.
These industries employ tens of thousands of workers across Mobile and Baldwin counties and the surrounding Gulf Coast, and when a burn occurs, responsibility often extends well beyond the direct employer to equipment manufacturers, chemical suppliers, vessel owners, and general contractors.
Alabama's Workers' Compensation Act provides the exclusive remedy against your direct employer for most on-the-job injuries. Workers' comp covers medical care and a portion of lost wages, but it does not compensate you for pain and suffering, disfigurement, or the full scope of permanent disability — and it does not touch the negligence of anyone other than your employer.
Alabama law preserves your right to bring a civil claim against any third party whose conduct caused or contributed to your burn. Those claims commonly include:
Alabama's statute of limitations for personal injury claims is 2 years from the date of injury under Ala. Code § 6-2-38. Alabama also allows punitive damages for injuries caused by willful or wanton misconduct, which makes deliberate safety violations and ignored citations especially valuable evidence. Because Alabama's filing window is relatively short and physical evidence at industrial and maritime sites can disappear within days, acting quickly is essential.
Records from an established, academically affiliated burn center are among the most persuasive evidence in a burn case. Documentation from the Arnold Luterman Regional Burn Center typically includes:
Your attorney will obtain these records with your written authorization and build your damages presentation around them. An experienced Alabama burn injury attorney knows how to translate the Luterman center's clinical detail — including its experience with industrial and maritime burns — into maximum recovery at settlement or trial.
If your burn was caused by someone else's negligence — an unsafe shipyard, a refinery or chemical-plant failure, defective equipment, a chemical supplier's failure to warn, or a dangerous property — you likely have a viable claim. Alabama lets burn victims pursue third-party civil claims alongside workers' compensation, and shipyard or offshore workers may also have Jones Act or LHWCA rights. Treatment at a verified regional burn center is itself strong evidence of injury severity. A free consultation will identify who is liable and what your claim may be worth. Call us or submit the form above — no fee unless you win.
Alabama's statute of limitations for personal injury claims is 2 years from the date of injury under Ala. Code § 6-2-38. Certain maritime and federal claims run on their own timelines. Two years is a short window when you are recovering from serious burns, so early action matters — OSHA files, site photos, equipment, and witness statements can be lost within days or weeks of a serious incident. Contact an attorney as soon as you are medically able.
Yes. Under HIPAA you have the right to copies of your complete medical records from USA Health / University Hospital. You can submit a written authorization to the medical records department, or authorize your attorney to request the records for you — usually the most efficient approach when the records are needed for litigation.
Get a free case review from a burn injury attorney familiar with Mobile and the Gulf Coast.
Alabama's 2-year statute of limitations means you cannot wait. Evidence disappears, memories fade, and witnesses become unreachable. Get your free review today and protect your rights.
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