Medindia- World Head Injury Awareness Day

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World Head Injury Awareness Day
(20^th March 2006)

No head injury is small enough to ignore or large enough to cope up with!

Phineas Gage, a 25 year old, railway construction man was a quiet, well mannered, enthusiastic young man in pursuit of his dreams, until it all happened in 1848. The worker was busy packing an explosive powder into a packing rod (tamping iron), when a spark resulted in explosion, propelling the pointed rod (3-foo long) through his head. Just within a few seconds, the rod had penetrated his brain through the skull to exit the same by his temple. Dr. John Harlow who treated the victim for 73 days felt that he had very little chances of survival. To the surprise of the treating physicians, he survived the accident. However, became an obstinate, obscene, self-absorbed man following the accident. He continued to suffer from similar behavioral and personality problems until his death in 1861.

The Golden Hour

Any tragedy can be taken to either success or failure within the first 10 minutes of medical attention. This crucial period is also referred to as THE GOLDEN HOUR. Quick and the timely help rendered in this period would ensure that the victim is nearly saved so that appropriate treatment can be made available from the nearby hospital. Golden Hour may be defined as the period during which all efforts are made to save a life before irreversible pathological changes can occur.

Coma and Head Injury

A coma is a deep state of unconsciousness where the affected individual is alive but is not able to react or respond to life around him/her. Coma is the most common manifestation of either head injury or certain other serious illnesses and it�s complications. Conditions such as seizures, metabolic disturbances (very high or very low blood sugar levels), brain tumors or other similar structural disorders of the brain leading to an increased intracranial pressure (pressure within the skull) can lead to coma. Bleeding within the brain (intracranial hemorrhage), drug or alcohol intoxication are other conditions that can result in coma.

Head injury and Brain Death

The concept of 'Brain Death' is important for those who wish to donate their organs, to let others live. Brain death has been defined as 'irreversible-coma' with the patient being totally unreceptive and unresponsive. Brain death has now been accepted as a form of death, as neither consciousness nor spontaneous respiration is possible in the absence of a functional brain stem. The head injury due to road traffic accident can account for almost 50% of Brain Deaths. Organ donation is perhaps the only positive outcome of this grave tragedy, provided the relatives agree to the process.