Question

John was at a pool party. Some of the people had a little too much to drink and a fight broke out. John was hit in the head with a strange object and temporarily lost consciousness. We he regained consciousness, he was lying supine on the ground and someone was putting a compress over his wound.

John complained that his vision was blurry so he quickly removed the compress from his head and jumped up. We he stood up, he became dizzy and fell to the ground again. Now he was in more pain because he hit his head in the exact same spot when he fell. This time, the wound on his head opened up even more and blood started to pour down his face. John became unconscious again and the ambulance rushed him to the hospital.

Based on the above scenario, answer the following questions?

1. Why did John become unconscious?

2. Why do you think his vision became blurry?

3. The best position for John is to lay down on the ground. Explain why this is the best position as it relates to blood flow.

4. Why did the person put a compress on his wound?

5. Name 3 blood vessels that are located in his head.

6. If the object had hit John's neck causing a deep laceration in his neck, explain why a deep wound to the neck can be life threatening as it relates to blood flow.

Answer 1

1.Concussion is a mild head injury that can cause a brief loss of consciousness, the impact on the head could have made the soft brain to crash back and forth against the inside of the hard skull causing bruising, bleeding, and shearing of the brain, this could lead to temproary loss of oxygen to the tissue causing you to loose consciousness.

2. Concussion can lead to swelling,or inflamation, this increases pressure on the area of the brain responsible for eye focussing, which in turn can cause blurred vision.

3. When you lie down, the pressure is less so that it increases venous blood flows to the brain, as opposed to standing up, where pressure can be high leading to decreased venous blood flow, so in order to have increased blood flow he is advised to lie down

4) compression can limit swelling or edema around the injured area, it can also prevent blood clot from happening.

5) Carotid artery, vertebral artery and cerebral artery, circle of willis

6) The carotid arteries are major blood vessels in the neck that supply blood to the brain, so any injury to this artery could be very fatal