Causes of Pediatric Skull Fractures
I’m Ed Smith, a Personal Injury Lawyer in Sacramento. The skull is one of the thickest bones in the body. However, it can still be broken just like any other bone. The skull protects the brain from being damaged. In children, the brain is still developing. Skull fractures in children can lead to significant problems down the road. A medical review was recently published exploring the causes of pediatric skull fractures. In the research paper, the causes of pediatric skull fractures include:
Fall Injuries: Almost two-thirds of the children who had sustained skull fractures did so via fall injuries. These falls could be from a standing height, however, falls from greater heights might lead to traumatic brain injuries.
Auto Accidents: Almost a quarter of the pediatric skull fractures were sustained in auto accidents. To minimize the chances of serious injuries, parents should use car seats and booster seats until their kids are both tall and heavy enough to use an adult seat.
Sports: Contact sports such as basketball, soccer, and football, can cause pediatric skull fractures. According to statistics from the Journal of Pediatrics, football causes about 75 concussions per 100,000 athletic exposures. An athletic exposure is either a practice or a game. Children playing these sports should make sure to wear the proper protective equipment to reduce the risk of skull and brain injuries.
Symptoms of Brain Injuries in Children
Not every pediatric skull fracture will lead to a traumatic brain injury. However, there are some symptoms that parents should look out for:
- Emotional Lability: While many teenagers have mood swings, emotional lability is a severe symptom. Damage to the frontal lobe of the brain can lead to personality changes.
- Loss of Consciousness: Any loss of consciousness needs to be evaluated by a medical professional. According to the Medical Association Journal of Canada, almost 20% of brain injury patients had a loss of consciousness. Remember that some children could have a delayed loss of consciousness.
- Blurry Vision: The same journal indicated that close to a quarter of their patients had either blurry vision or double vision. This can show damage to the optic nerve or the occipital lobe.
- Memory Loss: While memory loss is a symptom of dementia, it can also be a symptom of a traumatic brain injury. This can be either anterograde amnesia (difficulty forming new memories) or retrograde amnesia (loss of current memories).
Children who have suffered a concussion should be evaluated thoroughly because there is always a risk of a skull fracture or brain damage with this injury.
Watch YouTube Video: 6 Symptoms of Traumatic Brain Injury in Children. This video explains how children can sustain a traumatic brain injury and how to spot the symptoms.
Help with Skull Injuries in Kids
If a child has sustained a skull fracture, it is not unusual for parents to need help. They might have to miss work while their child is in a hospital. Insurance companies might refuse to pay for portions of their child’s medical care. Kids can develop long-term complications of brain damage. In this situation, speaking with an experienced personal injury lawyer in Sacramento can be helpful. Whenever a child has a head injury, the circumstances should be investigated thoroughly. There might be new details that other people have missed. An experienced attorney knows how to ask the right questions, how to conduct an investigation, and can help a family reach a decision that is in their best interests.
Related Articles
Personal Injury Lawyers in Sacramento
I’m Ed Smith, a Personal Injury Lawyer in Sacramento. If your child or a family member has suffered a skull fracture in an accident, call me at (916) 921-6400 or (800) 404-5400 to receive free, friendly legal advice.
I am a California injury lawyer appearing in the Million Dollar Advocates Forum.
Please take a brief moment to look through some of our verdicts and settlements at this location.
You could also view Yelp, Avvo or Google to see reviews by some of our past clients.
Photo by pixabay.com
:dr cha [cs 697] cv