Mild head injury and complete memory loss

[ICantRememberAnything]

Has anyone else's child, or anyone else, had amnesia following a slight knock to the head? My 8 year old son mildly banged his head at school on Thursday (so mildly he didn't even cry) and then forgot everything for the past year or so, plus he kept asking the same questions over and over. It was very scary for him (except when he forgot he couldn't remember anything) and me. The doctors in A&E said it was Transient Global Amnesia. His memory has thankfully mostly now returned, albeit with some gaps and fuzziness about Thursday.

Has anyone else experienced this? There doesn't seem to be much about it on the web, especially not in relation to children.

It doesn't sound like the bang was so mild.

Has he had an MRI?

When DC fell & hit their heads, the 1st thing paediatrician asked was "Did she cry?". Apparently it is not a good sign when they don't.

Have they related the bump to the TGA? TGA can just happen randomly, like a type of migrainous phenomenon. Scary but no long term consequences, I believe.

It happened to me when I was 17, now 32. I fainted and banged my head, lost my memory for about 8 hours. Apparently every 5 minutes I asked where I was and what happened. The time I can remember from it felt like waking up. I still can't remember much of that day but no lasting effects.

The bump was just after lunchtime and it was really minor (he bumped into a coat hook) he was in the cloakroom surrounded by lots of other children and no one else noticed it happen. He has now remembered it happening, but can't remember the rest of the afternoon at school (where no one noticed anything was wrong with him, so he must have continued functioning!) or the hospital until the very end. I think my relentless after school questioning (to which he stared blankly) may have made him realise he couldn't remember anything which caused him to start hyperventilating. Thankfully (?) after a while he forgot that he couldn't remember and calmed down and started his repeat questions. He has lost about 7 hours completely, but has thankfully remembered everything else. It was very scary when he could even remember dressing up for world book day, his Christmas presents, his birthday or what had happened.

They didn't actually link it to the bump, that was just my assumption. It would be too much of a coincidence to bang your head and then lose your memory and for the two things to be unconnected surely?

He didn't have an scan, no.

Silverdrawers- interesting to hear your story and very pleased you haven't had any lasting effects and I assume no reoccurrence!

This happened to my DS (10). Fell at school after spinning round and round and hit his head somehow. Was so confused after and couldn't remember what had happened to him or anything else from that day. School called me to collect him and when I arrived he didn't even seem to register who I was or what was going on. Couldn't tell me what had happened (I found out about the spinning afterwards by asking his friends).

Took him to A&E even though he seemed physically fine and they did an MRI and kept him in overnight. Their concern was the period of memory loss. He's been fine since but still can't remember it happening.

Thank you for your story! They thought about doing a scan, but changed their minds for some reason (dr was still thinking about a scan the next day). They also weren't sure whether to keep him in overnight or not and gave us the choice- we thought he would be happier being observed by us at home.

He seemed to go through a weird progression: first lack of memory but not obvious to those around, then realisation he couldn't remember and panic about it, then complete amnesia where he was calm (couldn't remember he couldn't remember) and asking the same question over and over again, then back into memory loss but no questions and a slight return to normality, to slight memory and finally (the next morning) complete memory accept for the missing 7 hours. Does this sound familiar?

DS was upset about his memory loss but wasn't repeating questions. School phoned me to collect him not because they knew the incident/fall had even happened, but because he was unusually quiet and withdrawn ( talks endlessly). When the teacher asked if he was ok he started crying ( completely out of character) and said he couldn't remember why he was there. He was taken to the medical room and the office staff sat with him and asked him if something had happened and he kept saying he couldn't remember. They then phoned me and he just seemed confused, upset and couldn't remember anything about the day.
I had to go and collect a younger DS so asked around his friends if they knew what had happened to him and found out about the fall.
I thought it was concussion causing the memory loss so took him to A& E to get him checked over but they couldn't find any sign that he had even hit his head.
He didn't have any longer term memory losses, just that day, so it hasn't bothered him long term that he can't remember what happened.