A&e? Head injuries?

[Confusedpleasehelpthanks]

Just to be clear, I am NOT injured and I’m not wondering if I should go to a&e, it was just a general enquiry about when other people thought a head injury would require a visit a&e/minor injuries unit.

So obviously with head injuries you should never take any chances, and obviously I know that falls from a height, sickness, unconsciousness, dizziness and other ill effects after an injury must always be checked, but when is a mild head injury ok to be monitored and treated at home and when does it require a visit to a&e?

I was just curious as almost a year ago I had a concussion from a horse riding accident (16.3hh ex-racehorse decided to send me flying!), and everyone said to get checked as I landed on my head. I called 111 for advice as I felt sick but hadn’t vomited at all and they recommended a&e so I went down- the doctor was lovely and said it’s always better to check with head injuries, but I felt like a time waster because I took up their time and after 5 minutes of checks I was fine and (thankfully!) able to go home! I was glad to get it checked but felt guilty like I was a time waster.

So it got me thinking, when is a head injury worth a trip to a&e for a check? Especially with a sport like horse riding, head bumps and injuries are not uncommon and I usually just brush myself down and got straight back on the horse! As a child I used to bounce on my head regularly after having a feisty (but adorable!) pony that loved nothing more than throwing me off and never went to hospital.

Basically, when should a ‘mild’ head injury/head bump be checked and when is it safe to monitor at home? if anyone has any knowledge on this please share.

Have you read Bob Saget's cause of death? I think a head injury is always worth getting checked out.

My son fell down the stairs, smashed his head, was unconscious for a minute. Head swelled, bruising and cuts.
Ambulance showed up, couldn’t care less about his head, said elbow looked broken.
He had X-ray on his elbow but nobody was fussed about his head which surprised me as I was really concerned

I would expect any head bump to be checked out. One with loss of consciousness possibly with paramedics as opposed to making your own way to hospital.

When I was 14 or 15 I had a bad fall from a 15.3hh TB x and lost consciousness. I was taken to hospital as precaution but I don't think anyone looked at my head other than to check it hadn't fallen off and observe me for a bit. But I remember them saying head injuries should always be checked. I was concussed for a long time too.

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg176/chapter/1-Recommendations#pre-hospital-assessment-advice-and-referral-to-hospital

This is what paramedics use as a guide as to whether a head injury needs to be seen in hospital

Ok, thanks for all the comments, that’s helped a lot. I just realised I wasn’t actually sure when a head injury should be checked and when it doesn’t need hospital.

I just felt a bit silly because I was absolutely fine, other than having a sore head and feeling a bit sick which isn’t abnormal after a fall. Once I saw the doctor (who was fantastic and said it’s always worth getting checked after a fall) I was only there for 5 minutes and they said I was fine to go home thankfully. It just got me wondering, did I do the right thing by going to get checked? Or was I being a bit over cautious?

I followed the guidelines of 111 to go but when I was telling one of my friends afterwards they said it was a bit dramatic just for a bumped head and that people bang their head all the time and don’t go to hospital- that’s what got me confused about this.

So any bump should be checked out, right?

It's always pretty difficult to accurately judge!

As a child I:

Once fell backwards from the top of a slide and landed directly on my head onto concrete slab. My mum came running immediately because she "knew" I must have been badly injured, apparently the noise was sickening. I jumped straight back up, shrugged it off and was totally fine.

Once was tripped up and fell down the last two stairs of a staircase and landed gently onto a carpet. Didn't even seem to make that much contact with my head. Again, sprang up immediately and initially felt absolutely fine. A couple of hours later mum rushed me to A&E because I was then clearly concussed.

I think if you take a decent knock to the head like falling off a horse it's probably always worth getting checked out!

Not every bump needs to be checked. Call 111 who will advise. They follow the NICE guidelines that I posted in my previous post

I fell onto a wooden floor, with the back of my head making contact first. Wasn't knocked out, slight headache nothing too serious and no where near as bad as the headache I got from a previous head injury 16 years prior so I didn't think anything of it. I certainly knew about it months down there line when I ended up with all sorts of neurological issues. Rushed into hospital with a suspected stroke had a lumbar puncture which was clear and spent a week really poorly and unable to get out of bed without throwing up. Thankfully not a stroke but a hemiplegic migraine. For the next few years I constantly had headaches, and I lost my memory at one point. I'm ok now but next time I won't be so blasé about these things

@thingymaboob

Not every bump needs to be checked. Call 111 who will advise. They follow the NICE guidelines that I posted in my previous post

I’ll go and check it out, thank you!

This is something I am often unsure about too. If us horse riders went to A and E everytime we fell and hit our heads, we would be there regularly lol well those of us with crazy horses anyway. It is hard to judge but with head injuries it is better to get checked and be fine rather than not get checked and be injured. I suppose the height of the horse matters too, as a 15hh and above fall will always be a big impact, but having said that a fall from a pony is still a height and can cause serious injury to. any bad injury to the head should always be checked as a precaution. someone else might know more about it than me