BILLY BLOGGS

Billy Bloggs

Billy Bloggs

Billy Bloggs is a 8 year old, male who presented to the W.C.H.C E.R. department on August 24, 2005 via EMS for a head injury, that was caused by a collision with a car while he was riding his bicycle. He also had a neck appliance/brace and a large area of bloody hair on the left side of his head, from a laceration he obtained from the accident.

Disease Process

A head injury is any trauma that leads to injury of the scalp, skull, or brain. These injuries can range from a minor bump on the skull to a devastating brain injury. A head injury can be classified as either closed or penetrating. In a closed head injury, the head sustains a blunt force by striking against an object. A concussion is a type of closed head injury that involves the brain. In a penetrating head injury, an object breaks through the skull and enters the brain. (This object is usually moving at a high speed like a windshield or another part of a motor vehicle.) Common causes of head injury include traffic accidents, falls, physical assault, and accidents at home, work, outdoors, or while playing sports. Some head injuries result in prolonged or non-reversible brain damage. This can occur as a result of bleeding inside the brain or forces that damage the brain directly. These more serious head injuries may cause: changes in personality, emotions, or mental abilities, speech and language problems, loss of sensation, hearing, vision, taste, or smell, seizures, paralysis and coma (Saunders, 171).

The signs of a head injury can occur immediately or develop slowly over several hours. Even if the skull is not fractured, the brain can bang against the inside of the skull and be bruised. (This is called a concussion.) The head may look fine, but complications could result from bleeding inside the skull, (called a hematoma). As a Nurse if you encounter a person who just had a head injury, you need to try to find out what happened. If he or she cannot tell you, look for clues and ask witnesses. Some symptoms of a serious head trauma may include: loss of consciousness, confusion, or drowsiness, low breathing rate or drop in blood pressure, and convulsions. A fracture in the skull or face, facial bruising, swelling at the site of the injury,fluid drainage from nose, mouth, or ears (may be clear or bloody), severe headache, initial improvement followed by worsening symptoms, irritability, restlessness, lack of coordination, and changes in vision (Saunders, 172). If any of these are present, they warrant the need to seek out emergency medical treatment.

Upon seeking medical treatment, the nurse or physician will obtain all needed information in regards to injury, how it happened, and what the patient is exhibiting. Then the doctors will take this information to work up a diagnosis for the pt with the head trauma/injury based on the signs and symptoms they present. The doctors may then further assess the person's cognitive ...