Personalized Emergency Care for Head Injury

You may not know when you’ve experienced a serious head injury. Sometimes there are no noticeable signs. While you may appear fine, you should seek emergency care for a thorough medical evaluation if you have experienced a head injury on the Central Coast.

A head injury can impact the outside of your scalp, causing significant bleeding, or inside the skull, as in the case of traumatic brain injury. Dignity Health St. John's offers care with compassion for head injury symptoms.

For traumatic head injury, call 911 or seek emergency treatment.

 

Immediate Attention for Head Injury Symptoms at Dignity Health St. John's

Excessive bleeding is the most apparent sign of outer (external) head trauma since your scalp has many blood vessels close to your skin. A closed (internal) head injury makes diagnosis more difficult since head injury symptoms are not as obvious.

Dignity Health St. John's emergency doctors recommend that you seek immediate care or call 911 if you have head injury symptoms that include inability to remember (amnesia), confusion, headache, changes in personality, vomiting, or trouble sleeping.

Other head injury symptoms requiring medical attention are:

  • Clear fluid or blood from your mouth, ear, or nose
  • Seizures
  • Serious wound
  • Stiff neck or bad headache
  • Abnormal behavior
  • Trouble speaking, seeing, or breathing
  • Extreme fatigue
  • Weak or immovable limb
  • Uneven pupils

All types of trauma can lead to a head injury, including head injury from fall, a car crash, sports, or a work-related accident. For your healing and well-being, please get medical care to make sure that your head injury is not serious.

 

Head Injury Treatment with Humankindness

Prevention is the first step to protecting yourself from a head injury. Always wear a seatbelt when in a vehicle and wear protective gear when playing sports or working in an industrial or construction area.

For first aid treatment, our emergency care team suggests these tips:

  • Place pressure on the wound unless there may be a skull fracture.
  • Cover the wound with a sterile bandage but do not clean the wound since this can cause more bleeding.
  • Do not move the person or pick up a child unless you need to for safety reasons.
  • Do not take out any object that may have lodged in the head or wound.
  • Do not take off a helmet.

We want you to remain safe and avoid serious injury. To learn more about our emergency services and follow-up care, Find a Doctor near you.