A baseball player was hit in the head with a bat during practice. In the emergency department, the physician tells the family that he has a "coup" injury
How will the nurse explain this to the family so they can understand?
A)
"It's like squeezing an orange so tight that the juice runs out of the top."
B)
"Your son has a huge laceration inside his brain where the bat hit his skull."
C)
"Your son has a contusion of the brain at the site where the bat hit his head."
D)
"When the bat hit his head, his neck jerked backward causing injury to the spine."
Ans:
C
Feedback:
A direct contusion of the brain at the site of external force is referred to as a coup injury. Contrecoup injury (answer choice D) is the rebound injury on the opposite side of the brain. Answer choice B relates to lacerations that are usually not caused by a direct blow to the head. However, depending on how hard the head was hit with a bat, a hematoma could form as the brain strikes the rough surface of the cranial vault.
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