Odd head injury

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I'm late to the dance, but I have brought stupid questions.

What was his medical history?  Was he on anything besides ethanol?
Anything regularly prescribed?  

And what happened during the hour you were away?  Was he given anything
for pain, anxiety, or nausea?

Sorry, but having once been the victim of a med error, I'd be curious if
someone missed a decimal point on a dose somewhere.

All's well that ends well, in any event.

Pret Bjorn, RN
Bangor, ME USA



-----Original Message-----
From: trauma-list-bounces at trauma.org
[mailto:trauma-list-bounces at trauma.org] On Behalf Of Dean Lutrin
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 7:44 PM
To: 'Trauma & Critical Care mailing list'
Subject: Odd head injury

Dear Listmembers

I would like an opinion on a recent case I saw. Young male thrown off a
bridge - didn't get any more details. Came in slightly confused (GCS
14/15)
with a a fractured wrist and ankle. It was one of those nights in a
Johannesburg trauma unit and I had to run off to sort out another
patient
and I left my patient with one of the interns. I wasn't too worried
about
him compared with the other patients I had to sort out. Came back to him
an
hour later and he was comatose. GCS 3/15. Intubated without drugs. CT
brain
normal. Nothing else on imaging aside from wrist and ankle. Ventilated
overnight with good spontaneous respiratory effort and reactive pupils.
GCS
still 2/10. Next day started waking up quite nicely. Extubated 36 hours
after initial injury with full recollection of everything up to arrival
at
hospital. Resources didn't allow me to CT again before extubation. Full
toxic screen negative, but patient was drunk.

Questions

1. was this just a concussion?
2. I have never seen a patient drop to 3/15 from 14/15 with a normal CT
and
then have a full recovery. Is it common?
3. Anything else could have caused it?

Thanks

Dean Lutrin
JHB, SA

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