17 year old male was playing around and hit the back of his head. Upon assessment visualized a mass that is tender to touch, cirular in shape (swollen), and around 3 cm x 3 cm. Vitals stable. No complaint of N/V and no dizzy feeling.
10 min later student complains of feeling dizzy, nauseous, drowsy with unsteady gait. Vitals are stable and WNL.
I called EMS and parent contacted d/t what I believe could be a concussion/ traumatic brain injury. I was cursed out because mother stated that it is not that serious because she is 3 hours away by train (school in located in NYC).
I personally feel like I made the right call... Kinda need confirmation because the lashing from the mother freaked me out...
Update... Mother called and apoligized as per student's social worker. Student was discharged from hospital and apoligized to me for lying to EMS about symptoms.
Update... Mother called and apoligized as per student's social worker. Student was discharged from hospital and apoligized to me for lying to EMS about symptoms.
The mom apologized to the SW?? What about to you, the one she cursed out?? Sheesh...
You absolutely did the right thing. I dread it whenever the child of a parent working hours away walks into my office. It's always a problem.
The mother being 3 hours away speaks even more to the appropriateness of sending the child out via EMS. If she's 3 hours away she's not coming to pick him up and take him in herself...
17 year old male was playing around and hit the back of his head. Upon assessment visualized a mass that is tender to touch, cirular in shape (swollen), and around 3 cm x 3 cm. Vitals stable. No complaint of N/V and no dizzy feeling.
10 min later student complains of feeling dizzy, nauseous, drowsy with unsteady gait. Vitals are stable and WNL.
I called EMS and parent contacted d/t what I believe could be a concussion/ traumatic brain injury. I was cursed out because mother stated that it is not that serious because she is 3 hours away by train (school in located in NYC).
I personally feel like I made the right call... Kinda need confirmation because the lashing from the mother freaked me out...
Just so you know, those symptoms are classic. In my personal experience, most Nurses don't know how to evaluate concussion/TBI beyond suspecting it. EMS certainly doesn't because they don't get any training in doing that at all. If your school has an athletic trainer, they will know how to evaluate this kind of injury. They get formal education in this. They're specialists in their field and very well educated in what they do (it's not just taping and stuff). If you and the trainer are on good terms professionally, and they're on site, call the trainer over. If the injured person isn't one of their athletes, they should at least give you some indication as to whether the injured person should be transported.
Personally, I think you absolutely made the right call. As far as you were able to tell, he had some kind of brain injury and you weren't able to properly evaluate or treat said injury. So you called 911 and had the student taken over to the ER for a more thorough evaluation.
Incidentally, if the mother actually said that his injury wasn't that serious because she was 3 hours away by train, I guess if he had died, he really couldn't have died because she was 3 hours away, by train, because clearly distance makes all things less serious...
You're the medical professional,not the parent(and if she was in the medical field, I'd be very surprised). Stand strongly by that, you did what you thought was in the best interest of the student, and yes, it was in their best interest. I've seen more concern from parents about the "sniffles", shame on her as a parent.
nrsang97, BSN, RN
2,602 Posts
You did the right thing. Mom needed to listen to why you wanted her kid checked out.