Signs and symptoms of a head or brain injury
Not all head injuries cause damage to the brain, but even a minor head injury can have symptoms including:
- nausea.
- headaches.
- eye problems (e.g. double vision).
- dizziness.
- memory problems.
- extreme tiredness.
- anxiety and depression (while recovering).
Signs of serious head injuries, concussion or damage to the brain include:
- Lasting headache that gets worse or is still present over six hours after the injury.
- Extreme difficulty in staying awake, or still being sleepy several hours after the injury. It is fine to let children go to sleep after a slight bump to the head, but you should check on them regularly and make sure you are able to wake them.
- Nausea and vomiting several hours after the injury.
- Unconsciousness or coma.
- Unequal pupil size.
- Confusion, feeling lost or dizzy, or difficulty making sense when talking.
- Pale yellow fluid or watery blood, coming from the ears or nose (this suggests a skull fracture).
- Bleeding from the scalp that cannot be quickly stopped.
- Not being able to use part of the body, such as weakness in an arm or leg.
- Difficulty seeing or double vision.
- Slurred speech.
- Having a seizure or fit.
