If the child is confused, disorientated or vomiting after a fall, parents should go to an emergency room. — CHRISTIN KLOSE/dpa
INEVITABLY, every child will take a tumble at some point and fall off the climbing frame or stumble down some steps and hit their head before a parent can even react.
However, determining whether the child has merely bumped their head or sustained a brain injury is difficult and not always obvious.
Parents should not let their child out of their sight for at least 24 hours and should not leave them alone, medical experts say.
The symptoms of concussion, or mild traumatic brain injury, are delayed and take hours to develop, for example when in rare cases bruises under the skull become larger and press on the brain.
Act quickly if the child behaves strangely after a fall, seems confused or disoriented, is unconscious for longer, vomits or does not react properly. Seizures and neurological disorders such as paralysis, impaired vision, speech or smell are also clear warnings. Parents should then take the child to an emergency room.
The all-clear is usually only given if the child starts playing normally and shows no abnormalities.
However, parents should continue to watch the child.
Incidentally, older people who suffer a blow to the head should also be watched. They tend to fall faster and are more susceptible to injury.
Pre-existing conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes mean older people have more sensitive blood vessels in the head also.
On top of that, the elderly frequently take medication to prevent blood clotting, but which can cause even minor blows to the head to trigger a cerebral haemorrhage.
A traumatic brain injury can cause paralysis or prove fatal in the worst case. Estimates of how many people suffer a traumatic brain injury every year range from 27 to 69 million globally, with elderly at most risk of death from these injuries. – dpa
