Climbing trees is a fantastic part of life for kids in New Zealand. It teaches them balance, coordination and bravery. However sometimes they can and do fall.
What do you do if your child falls out of a tree and suffers from a concussion or Mild Traumatic Brain Injury?
You need to go straight to accident and emergency for assessment or to your GP if the initial symptoms are less severe.
Recently at City Hyperbaric we saw a ten year old boy who loves climbing trees. He swung in a tree and hit his head, causing a loss of consciousness of around ten minutes and resulting in a fortnight off school.
Four weeks later he was still suffering from the concussion so came up from the South Island to our practice. On doing our head injury questionnaire, it showed his behaviour was very difficult and he was suffering constant headaches of 8 or 9/10 severity. He had reduced attention span, impaired comprehension, dizziness and angry outbursts all 7-9/10 in severity. This is what we did to help him recover:
He had two gentle osteopathic treatments, five days apart.
He had two 60 minute Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy sessions each day for the seven days (14 in total).
By the Wednesday (third day of treatment) his headaches were down to a 6/10 and his mother reported his behaviour was improving
By Saturday his headaches were 2 or 3/10.
On the final/seventh day he re-did our head injury questionnaire and had improved on all parameters. His headaches were now 0/10 and his attention span, anxiety, dizziness and angry behaviour were all 0/10 or 2/10
What was really wonderful was that he had returned to his calm, happy, curious self.
I have followed up with his mother now six weeks on and he has not had any headaches at all since the combined Osteopathic and mild Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Treatment.
The Featherston St City Hyperbaric Chamber All our Hyperbaric technicians are trained, experienced and skilled. Before coming in for a session you will be sent a HBOT medical questionnaires and information so you will be ready for your Hyperbaric medical with our Director, during which the the process will be fully explained. The most important ability you need for going in the chamber is to be able to equalise your ears as if you were flying or diving. At City Osteopaths and City Hyperbaric we like to work in with your concussion care team to help you make the optimal recovery.
Some research on HBOT and for Head injury:
“Role of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in Severe Head Injury in Children”
—Journal of Pediatric Neuroscience. 2012 Jan-April 7(1) 4-8
Conclusion: In children with traumatic brain injury, the addition of HBOT significantly improved outcome and quality of life and reduced risk of complications. Patients receiving HBOT were significantly better than the control group with decreased hospital stay, better Glasgow Coma Scale and drastic reduction in disability.
“Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy can improve Post Concussion Syndrome years after Mild Traumatic Brain Injury – Randomised Prospective Trial”
—PLoS One November 2013 10.137/journal.pone 0079995
Conclusion: Convincing results based on a crossover study, demonstrating that HBOT can induce neuroplasticity and significant brain function improvement in mild TBI patients with prolonged Post-Concussion-Syndrome at late chronic stage, years after injury.
Please see our information page here www.cityhyperbaric.co.nz for more detailed information including the costs and more research. We do provide a discounted Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy fee for children with a head injury on a case by case basis.
