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Suffered A Broken Nose And Concussion. Having Memory Loss, Nausea, Reaction To Bright Lights And Noise. What's Wrong?
Question: My 17-year-old son suffered a broken nose and a concussion, then only seconds later, took a sharp blow to his jaw which caused a second concussion, on October 2, during ROTC maneuvers. For more than a week, he needed assistance to walk without stumbling or falling, had severe short-term memory loss, nausea, severe reaction to bright lights and noise, etc. He is still on medication to help him with the nausea and though it's much better, he still has some short-term memory problems. Now, he has developed a nose bleed that's lasted for approximately 10 minutes despite applying pressure (not spurting, just a constant steady flow) and is lightheaded (again, not enough blood loss to cause this). He's had approximately 6 nosebleeds in his entire life and never one this bad. He is complaining of headache, lightheaded, nausea, etc. Is this related to the concussion? Does he need to see a doctor now, wait until Monday and see his regular doctor, or is this just a common occurrence with concussions?
Hi
Thanks for your query.
See frequent nose bleeding may be related to concussion but rare after some periods of the incidence. If it is because of contussion it usually would have happened during that period. By the way in this age group other causes of frequent nose bleeding like bleeding disorders, hereditary haemorrhagic telengiectasia, platelet disorders. Again as your son is asthmatic and chronic rhinosinusitis is a very common association of asthma that may lead to frequent nose bleeding. Habit of frequent nose pricking may also lead to recurrence of this bleeding. Therefore I will suggest you to consult a good ENT specialist as soon as possible to undergo anterior and posterior rhinoscopy to detect whether it is anterior or posterior bleeding and to undergo sets of investigations to find out the cause.
Hope I have answered your query. If you have further queries you may write back to me freely. I am always here to guide you as per my knowledge and understanding of the subject.
Kindly write a review on this answer.
Best Regards,
Dr Arnab Maji
Thanks for your query.
See frequent nose bleeding may be related to concussion but rare after some periods of the incidence. If it is because of contussion it usually would have happened during that period. By the way in this age group other causes of frequent nose bleeding like bleeding disorders, hereditary haemorrhagic telengiectasia, platelet disorders. Again as your son is asthmatic and chronic rhinosinusitis is a very common association of asthma that may lead to frequent nose bleeding. Habit of frequent nose pricking may also lead to recurrence of this bleeding. Therefore I will suggest you to consult a good ENT specialist as soon as possible to undergo anterior and posterior rhinoscopy to detect whether it is anterior or posterior bleeding and to undergo sets of investigations to find out the cause.
Hope I have answered your query. If you have further queries you may write back to me freely. I am always here to guide you as per my knowledge and understanding of the subject.
Kindly write a review on this answer.
Best Regards,
Dr Arnab Maji
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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