Talk and Die Syndrome

In the aftermath of Natasha Richardson's tragic death I think it's important for all of us to be aware of the dangers of head injuries, particularly that a person may appear to be fine after a head injury but in reality they may be inching towards death.

From MSN...

When you experience serious trauma to your head, you can be at risk, even if you feel fine and have no symptoms, says James J. McCarthy, M.D., assistant professor of emergency medicine at University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

"You've got confined space inside the skull, and blood from the injured blood vessels flows into the same space that the brain occupies," says McCarthy. "This growing clot of blood starts taking up more and more space, and puts pressure on and decreases the flow of oxygen to the brain." The brain can literally be squeezed to death, he says.

You can be free of symptoms for some time. McCarthy has seen people with head injuries who came to the hospital four or five days after their initial incident. In those cases, the clot inside the skull grew slowly, and pressure on the brain built up gradually.