RE: Zebra Burns

["Julie Rosof" <julie.e.rosof@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I wonder if you are referring to a form of "folk healing" associated with
several cultures -- coining. A coin is rubbed against the skin -- sometime
with a lubricant and a friction injury can occur.

I saw a pretty impressive case with a Laotian infant who had a "chest
cold" -- the family used a coin to rub on the child's chest -- the rubbing
left a pattern injury that could be described as a "zebra pattern".
Interestingly, a Laotian interpreter thought the coining was a bit excessive
but attributed it to a frightened family with little support.

Julie Rosof-Williams, RN, MSN

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-CHILD-MALTREATMENT-RESEARCH-L@cornell.edu
[mailto:owner-CHILD-MALTREATMENT-RESEARCH-L@cornell.edu]On Behalf Of
Dick Sobsey
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2001 6:57 PM
To: Child Maltreatment Researchers
Cc: Gregg Beratan
Subject: Re: Zebra Burns


As some one who worked as a nurse in a large institution for many years, I
can tell you what we called zebra burns. I am not sure that what you are
talking about is the same thing.

Zebra Burns are burns that appear as neat stripes usually on the torso but
sometimes onn other parts of the body. They can be caused by a number of
things but a common cause in the past was old fashioned steam radiators.  A
child or adult could be held against a hot steam radiator and burned. The
direction of the stripes often was revealing. If a person was backed up and
pinned against the radiator, the stripes were vertical. Horizontal stripes
sometimes occurred when people were over medicated or their consciousness
was impaired in some other way. They would some times lay on the floor up
against thre radiators. They probably leaned against them when they were
warm to get some heat, if they were heavily sedated, they would not move
away. Those horizontal stripes were often associated with neglect while the
vertical ones were more typically violence.

Occassionly, people would get a sunburn in a striped pattern as a result of
the the clothing that they were wearing or something and that was sometimes
confused with the radiator burns.

I am not sure that what we called zebra burns are the same thing that you
are looking for, but for us, they were burns that occurred in a distinct
paralell stripe pattern.

dick sobsey
University of Alberta


>    Hello,      I am writing a paper on  Zebra Burns, but do not know
>anything about what they are or how they  happen.  If you know anything at
>all about this topic and could get back to  me i would greatly appreciate
>it.                      Thank you very much,
>                                             Ryan Garbolino
>(Garb1100@hotmail.com)