Head Injury (cont.)

When to Seek Medical Care

Emergency personnel should immediately attend to all potentially serious head injuries.

Call the doctor to ask about any of the following situations. Your doctor will recommend home care, set up an appointment to see you, or direct you to go to a hospital's Emergency Department.

• A person is pushed to the ground or struck a hard object with the head but did not lose consciousness
  
  
• Vomiting more than once
  
  
• Confusion
  
  
• Drowsiness
  
  
• Weakness or inability to walk
  
  
• Severe headache

Go to the Emergency Department by ambulance in the following situations. People with less severe injuries may be taken by car to the Emergency Department.

• Severe head trauma or a fall from more than the height of the person or a hard fall onto a hard surface or object
  
  
• Loss of consciousness for more than 1 minute, vomiting more than once, confusion, drowsiness, weakness or inability to walk, or severe headache
  
  
  • Prevent movement of the neck in severe head injury or if the injured person has any neck pain. If the person needs to vomit, carefully roll them onto their side without turning the head.
  
  
• Should an injured person be allowed to fall asleep? Many people mistakenly believe that it is important to keep a person awake after they have been struck on the head. Children often are more emotionally disturbed than they are physically injured after a minor fall. They will cry and be upset, but as the parent rushes them to the hospital, the child may begin to calm down. They have expended a lot of physical and emotional energy crying and then will often want to fall asleep.
  
  
  • You do not need to keep a child or other head injury victim awake. In many cases it is even helpful to the emergency doctor to be able to awaken a child who is now calm and rested and able to behave normally. This gives the doctor a much better assessment of the severity of the head injury.
    
    
  • If a person who was initially normal after a head injury cannot be awakened or is extremely difficult to awaken, he or she may have a more serious head injury and should be evaluated by a doctor.

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Last Editorial Review: 8/10/2005