Head Injury Awareness Day

Dr Ch Gautam *

World Head Injury Awareness Day at Kangla Western Gate by Shija Hospitals on March 20 2016 :: Pix - TSE

The Head Injury Awareness Day falls on March 20th every year and looking at the number of people who suffer from a mild bump on their head to severe brain injury, we do know how important this day is.

Observing the Head Injury Awareness Day remind us on how we could reduce the day to day accidents and brain injuries only if we are careful. It brings our attention to the simple safety gadgets like helmets and seat belts and child proofing your home which can take off the bandage from head and the problem associated with the injury.

Every year more than 5 percent of the people around the world get serious brain injury after they get into an accident or just unknowingly bump their head. So it has become very important to educate and to make the world aware of how a very little injury to your brain can spoil the whole life.

How do you get a Brain or Head Injury

During this time when the Head Injury Awareness is all in air, let us be aware of how and what are the causes behind head or brain damage.

As all of us may know, accidents and bumping your head onto something or being hit on the head by anything heavy can cause irreversible brain damage to the victim. But are you aware that a baby falling from a crib and a football being hit on your head can all cause the same damage; sometimes minor and in some cases very serious and irreversible.

Being one of the most important parts of the body, brain is protected inside the hard bony skull but even the skull can’t withstand the force sometimes and the soft brain tissues may get injured by a possibly very small hit.

What can Head/ brain Injury Cause

Head injury can result in damage to the most important part of the central nervous system, our brain and this can affect ones health and well being adversely. Even a very small case can result in ultimate damage if proper care and treatment is not given on time.

One should be aware of what a simple head injury can cost them and their dear ones and should be very particular to get the right and expert treatment on time.

There are a number of cases, maybe hundreds of thousands of cases from around the world where head injury resulted in death or paralysis of the victim just because the proper care was not given at the right time. Always remember, time is a very critical factor if a person has any damage done to their head or brain, if the right time passes off what could have been treated becomes an irreversible and lifelong damage done to them.

Sometimes you won’t even know that the brain is injured as there won’t be any bleeding or blood but all that is inside would be messed up, this is the case of closed brain injury. But sometimes in open brain injury just by the look of the victim every other man can guess what has gone wrong.

Effects of Head Injury

Head injury can cause problems from small loss of memory to severe paralysis and death. There are a number of victims who are partially or fully paralyzed just because they ‘forgot’ to wear their helmet on the day.

Some even lose their life or the whole loads of beautiful memories of life because they bumped their head or got hit on it. Remember your skull don’t have to crash if the brain damage ought to occur, silly and small hit can also cause small or serious brain injury.

How to Reduce Head Injuries

There are a number of things which we all know, can protect our head from injury but forget at times.

Fastening helmets and seat belts while driving can help to reduce the cases of brain and head damage to a large extent. Wearing the helmets to the playground, if you are playing rugby or cricket or any such sport can also help in bring down the chances of playground injury to your brain. Similarly protecting yourself from by wearing hiking caps in any cases where you might get injured also lower the chances.

Childproofing your house by removing obstacles in your child’s path and taking care that there are nothing in their head level that can hurt them also lowers the home accidents.

Take care to have your lightings in the attics, store and stairways fixed so that you don’t bump into things while probing in the dark.

Some very simple things like these can help to bring down the number of accidents that cause brain death. Remember the next time you get into your car, fasten the seatbelts and drive safely as a simple carelessness can cost your life.

Shija Neurosurgery Department at a glance

The department has two full time Neurosurgeons. We are also proud to be empanelled by the Govt. of Manipur as a referral centre for neurosurgery.

We had successfully performed Surgical Cerebral Aneurysm Clipping (a very complicated neurosurgery) for the first time in Manipur in 2013. Various treatment facilities available in our centre include brain tumour surgery, skull base surgery, vascular neurosurgery, spinal cord tumours, congenital problems, head and spine injury, stroke, paediatric neurosurgery and so on.

The department is supported by separate neurosurgery ICU, round the clock laboratory and radiology services and NABH accredited Blood Bank with NAT facility (first of its kind in Eastern India). We also accept neurosurgical emergencies because we care the precious lives.