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

[dreadlordmrson]

Thank you so much for this information!
I just had a character run over by a car, but because of magical protections, he only had the "minor" effects of a concussion and copious bruising over most of his body.
I had written him as waking up in his own family's hospital a few hours later, but this information makes me think that maybe I should edit the fic to give him a choppy memory of the time in between where he was being moved around.

Right now I have him -- right after waking up at home -- storming around his house in his normal manner, grumpy and with a headache, some balance issues, and sound sensitivity. Then he goes to bed normally.

You mention moderate-severe concussions having symptoms lasting for days-weeks, does that mean a light concussion only lasts hours to days?
Is there a strong or light correlation between severity/number of symptoms and length of concussion?

How unlikely would it be to have him waking up feeling mostly fine in the head after a night's sleep? It feels a little like I'm letting him off too easy after having him run over, but I know from family history just how rough severe bruises alone can be.
Less for medical reasons and more for narrative feel, it would feel better to have his head injury slowly ease off over the course of 2-3 days. That seems a decent timing from what I can understand of your post?

I've also heard that the brain is extra vulnerable for a while after a concussion, as it recovers in ways that aren't made obvious through symptoms. That people need to be extra careful of impact or possible whiplash-like effects or anything else that could jolt the brain in ways that normally would be sub-concussive in effect.
Should his doctor* father be giving him advice to be very careful with physical activities for... days? weeks? a month or two? after the accident?
I already had the character thinking about that as he had to go upstairs to get to his bedroom, while slightly off balance.
(* I think his father is a GP but I haven't double-checked)

Thank you in advance if you answer any of my questions.
And thanks either way for reading this somewhat train of thought post.

[pallas_rose]

Hi hi!

His grumbling around with a headache sounds within-normal-limits to me for the day after a mild concussion, but I will say that often times being covered in bruises is SIGNIFICANTLY worse the next day. Plus, young men are the WORST patients. Unless they've done a contact sport for a while, they've never really been in pain, and are absolutely shocked and unable to cope with it. So unless he's a football or rugby player, he should notice the bruises feel worse! He might even be surprised and horrified at how much pain and how stiff he is upon waking the next morning.

Having a choppy memory or some amnesia of the event and immediate aftermath is perfect. Yes, a minor concussion is probably an hours-to-days phenomenon. When you get into repeated concussions you've lost me, that's a neurologist's or Physical Medicine & Rehab person's bailiwick.

In terms of correlation between severity/number of symptoms and length of concussion: I don't THINK so? TBIs in general are unfortunately a lot of "well, let's see what we end up with" and sometimes people do a ton better than we expect and sometimes a lot worse. We don't know how to predict outcomes very well!

Hmm, in terms of brain being more vulnerable: well, it is for sure after a real brain bleed or stroke to things like hypoxia, low blood pressure, etc, which is why a patient with a true TBI goes to the ICU for monitoring usually. Out of the acute phase for a concussion (days?) I don't know that we have much in terms of re-injury counseling, except for the fact that repeated concussions lead to CTE (the thing football players are rightly suing the NFL for these days). If he's covered in bruises, and dizzy, he probably won't WANT to do physical activities for days to weeks! Usually we say things like: listen to your body, don't push through pain, but be lightly active as you can tolerate.

And wear a g-d helmet!

[dreadlordmrson]

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer!

re: contact sports
Canonically, he's been a martial artist since he was around 6, and he gets into tussles with school bullies regularly, so he's at least used to getting into fights and sometimes roughed up.

I'll definitely be going back and editing to add some fractured memories of him getting moved around between the accident and getting home, then! No more X hours of full unconsciousness for my boy.

He probably should wear a helmet. :p
Though in this case he was on foot and got hit by a car that veered off the road, so he didn't exactly expect to be in a dangerous situation at the time. And he had his fic-magic to keep him from going home in a body bag.

What I know about concussions has been, y'know, what I could scrap together from the internet that wasn't too contradictory. Plus the time when I was young that I only partly remember, when my mother had a very severe concussion that left her emotionally regressed to childhood for... months. And even after recovering she had some permanent cognitive-behavioral effects. Just being a little bit more volatile, a little less emotionally regulated...
And that was just from falling out of her chair at work! ...admittedly, onto a concrete floor.
But I know my personal concussion experience is not super typical and not a great measuring stick for how to handle more minor or moderate cases...

So thanks again for all this information!