Knocked unconcious on a pirate ship

[sunsalute]

Can I pick a medical brain about how you'd care for someone that was knocked unconcious with a blow to the head? If there's experience with how it feels and how to describe waking up, that would also be super amazing. I know it's super dangerous and requires a hospital visit but this is fic-land and historical and they're on a pirate ship so we're ignoring that small tidbit.

Setting: I'm not going to lie, this is pretty vague. Whatever Pirates of the Carribbean is, ish? On a ship belonging to a relatively well-respected naval officer who's just picked up someone with an 'or alive' bounty. As little crew as they can get away with.

The Knockening: poor Character is headbutted into unconciousness. They stay unconcious long enough to be moved to another ship.

The questions:
-how long can they stay unconcious before breaking suspension of disbelief
-how would someone used to dragging unconcious bodies around check up on Character as they wake up
-how does it feel to wake up after such a blow
-assuming no lasting damage, what temporary damage can Character expect?

Thank you so much!

Comments

[celli]

This is great, from someone else writing about concussions. My guy is in a hospital, so I'm basing this all on my experience of two and a half concussions, but, you know, write what you know. :)

A followup question, if you don't mind - after my three injuries, they always did CAT scans. Is that standard for concussions, or depending on the result of other checks?

[pallas_rose]

Yes, it's standard for all injuries where the mechanism/history is consistent or reasonable risk for TBI, the spectrum of which includes concussion (no bleeding in brain, but loss of consciousness and/or symptoms) and the various kinds of brain bleeds: subdural, epidural, subarachnoid, and intraparenchymal hematomas/hemorrhages.

Basically, if you hit your head and pass out, or the mechanism of injury is with enough force (a car crash, for example), or you're older (brains shrink and rattle more in the skull, increasing risk of bleeding) or on blood thinners, we scan your brain. Plus other reasons I'm not remembering right now.

If it's negative for bleeding inside the skull, then you can be observed, either in the hospital if severe concussion or at home with people if less so.

But if there is bleeding, you often get serial scans or admitted for close observation and neuro checks. There are scales and such for treatment protocols depending on various factors, but that's the general case. Some kinds/extents of bleeding in the brain requires surgery. All traumatic bleeding in the brain (according to most US protocols, probably global as well) gets a week of seizure preventing medications, as well. Trauma centers will often check coagulation studies and correct any blood clotting problems to help prevent the bleeding from continuing.