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Injuries involving some type of blow to the head are among the most common in our society, despite all the health and safety precautions in cars for motorists, in the workplace for employees, and in community spaces for the general public.
Head injuries can range from relatively minor damage to the scalp and face, such as lacerations, abrasions and bruising, to more serious injuries involving damage to the brain. While thankfully traumatic brain injury occurs much less frequently, it is nevertheless important to know how it is identified and what to do to help the injured person.
Loss of consciousness, even for a short amount of time, is one of the clearest indications that the brain may have been affected by a blow to the head. If the person is confused and uncertain of the time, date, and their location this may indicate trauma to the brain. Furthermore, they may have forgotten the events leading up to and surrounding the incident which caused the head injury. Any of these symptoms, following a blow to the head, should be taken seriously.
A casualty displaying symptoms of severe head trauma, such as loss of consciousness for more than a few minutes, should receive immediate medical attention. With less severe symptoms the person should be watched for a period of several hours after the head trauma.
Even if an injury to the head does not seem severe enough to need medical attention immediately, the casualty's state of consciousness, awareness of the time, their location, and immediate memory function (e.g. remembering a series of four numbers) should be evaluated periodically in the hours following the trauma.
Any evidence of deterioration may be a sign of delayed effects of brain injury due to swelling or internal bleeding and in these cases the person should receive medical attention as soon as possible.
Without knowledge of the head and brain it may be difficult to understand why even a seemingly mild blow to the head may have very serious and potentially life-threatening consequences.
The brain is positioned at the top of the brain stem which passes out of the base of the skull through a hole called the foramen magnum. It is soft and protected by three membrane layers and Cerebrospinal fluid (a watery substance) which serve to suspend and cushion the brain within the cranium (skull).
Brain injuries arise from three characteristics of this brain-skull anatomy: the rigidity and shape of the skull, the incompressibility of brain tissue and the susceptibility of the brain to violent sideways movements.
The first two characteristics give rise to contusions or heamatomas (i.e., bleeding) on the surface of the brain, one of the most common injuries.
There are usually two contusion sites in a brain injury. One occurs at the site of impact to the brain and is called the coup injury. The other arises where the brain bounces off the skull following the original blow, and is called the contre coup injury
Some bleeding may also arise at points where the outer-most membrane layer (the dura mater) is torn away from the inside of the skull.
The third characteristic plays a role primarily in injuries which involve rapid and forceful movements of the head (shearing forces), such as in road traffic accidents. In these situations rotational forces, such as might occur in whiplash injuries, are particularly damaging.
The resulting ‘shearing forces' caused by a car crash can lead different parts of the brain to move relative to one another.
This movement produces stretching and tearing of axons (diffuse axonal injury) and the insulating myelin sheath, which work together to conduct electrical impulses away from nerve cells towards their destination. Small blood vessels are also damaged causing bleeding (petechial hemorrhages) deep within the brain.
These injuries are the major cause of loss of consciousness in a head trauma victim and collectively can result in swelling of the brain.
If the pressure within the skull is not relieved through surgery, cooling or medication, the brain will gradually be pushed down through the opening at the base of the skull. Nuclei in the brain stem which control breathing and cardiac function will eventually be compressed resulting in death.
Returning now to the symptoms of head injury, a great deal of work has been directed toward using these symptoms to classify the severity of head traumas.
Loss of consciousness or coma and post traumatic amnesia (difficulty remembering new information after waking up from the coma), are the two most common symptoms used in classification.
A mild head injury is one in which the period of unconsciousness is less than twenty minutes and post traumatic amnesia lasts for less than one hour, while a head injury in which the person is unconscious for at least one day and experiences post traumatic amnesia for more than 24 hours is considered severe.
As well as evaluating an injury victim's period of unconsciousness and subsequent loss of memory, the Glasgow Coma Scale is also used to assess the severity of head injuries. To read more about this system, click here.
If you would like to make a compensation claim for a head injury suffered in a non-fault or part-fault accident, contact YouClaim by phone on 0800 10 757 95 or use live help to speak to a legal adviser over the internet.
Alternatively you can take a few moments to fill in a short online claim form or request a ring back and we will contact you regarding your case as soon as possible.
Head injury information compensation
