Kids most at risk of death from brain injury

TRAUMATIC brain injuries kill thousands of South Africans every year, with children most at risk.

Statistics show brain injury is still the second most common cause after infections, with South African children eight times more likely than those in the US to die of brain injuries.

At Red Cross Children’s Hospital, about a third of all trauma incidents involving head injuries are mainly a result of car accidents and violence.

Despite the shocking statistics, Cape Town neurosurgeon Dr Nico Enslin said brain injuries are preventable, but when they do happen, rehabilitation is possible.

The world commemorated World Head Injury Awareness Day yesterday. Head injuries can vary from a mild bump to a severe brain injury.

Enslin, a neurosurgeon at Red Cross Children’s Hospital, said apart from the trauma to the brain, these injuries placed a burden on rehabilitation services, schooling and unemployment rates.

Often children who suffered brain injuries were misunderstood at home and school when their behaviour was unusual. Enslin said although patients didn’t die after head injuries, most were left disabled. This disability could range from inability to move limbs, to work, to impaired performance at school, to seizures, memory and hearing loss.

He said common cases of brain injuries treated at Red Cross Children’s Hospital included falls.

Parents should monitor such accidents carefully and visit the emergency unit if the fall is from a height greater than one metre, is against a sharp object, or if there is bleeding from the head or injury to the eye or ear.

Parents should pay close attention to change in behaviour after a fall, such as loss of consciousness or abnormal quietness.

Treating a brain injury can take from a few months to several years for severe injuries.

“Injured children will need to spend time in an intensive care unit,” Enslin said.

However, the ICU at Red Cross Children’s Hospital is too small to accommodate all brain injury patients, so is being expanded over two years at a cost of R100 million.

So far the project has raised more than R90m.

If you would like to donate, SMS ‘ICU’ to 40465 at a cost of R20 or visit www.childrenshospitaltrust.org.za