JEDDAH, 27 May — Two weeks ago, a young boy was walking on the road with his bicycle to a wayside store and was hit by a car.
The only reason he escaped head injury was he had his helmet on. He thus survived.
“This incident took place in a Canadian town but could be an eye-opener to the rest of the world. This should make all of us, especially professionals and sportsmen aware of the use of helmets when they are out on the field,” Dr. Derryck H. Smith, a Canadian specialist in psychiatry, said an interview with Arab News here on Friday.
Traumatic brain injury is a very common condition among teenagers and adults.
Any hit to the central part of the forehead can be injurious to the brain. If you’ve injured that part of the head then you’re very likely to have difficulty of paying attention, and develop problems with memory and run a risk of developing psychiatric conditions,” said Dr. Smith, head of the department of psychiatry and division of child psychiatry at Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, which is part of Children’s and Women’s Health Center of British Columbia.
“People should be aware of the risk of psychiatric disorder following a brain injury. Treatment is the same as for a psychiatric disorder without the brain injury. So it’s as if you suffer depression as a result of brain injury, which is very common...the treatment is the same as for regular depression,” Dr. Smith said.
According to him, many people do not understand that having a concussion or being unconscious is a big problem.
“At least in North America we minimize such problems. When someone gets hit on the head in a sports ring and rightaway becomes unconscious, we tend to believe he is going to regain consciousness. Often they don’t. The sport of boxing is a very good example. The object of boxing is to injure your opponent’s brain before he can injure yours. So you’ve to start thinking and realizing that brain is a very important organ. Make sure that people are adequately protected from sports injuries. Make sure that people who have brain injuries are examined by neurosurgeons and later for subtle injuries by neurologists, psychiatrists and neuropsychologists.”
Asked what precautions he would recommend, Dr. Smith said: “Always wear your seat belts during a drive, (which is mandatory in the Kingdom). You should wear a helmet when doing something risky like riding a horse, a bicycle or even a camel.” He recalled that Canadians playing ice hockey never wore helmets in the past.
“Now, such players and also those who play football, skiing and car racing use helmets in North America. In fact, use a helmet whenever you do anything that will put your head at risk. If you want to be safe you have to wear a helmet,” said Dr. Smith who has treated 450 people with head injuries in North America and other parts of the world. “There’s a fairly standardized psychiatric treatment,” he added. He said he was not aware of the incidence of head injury in this part of the world when asked about the extent of the problem, especially among sportsmen and also due to rising road accidents. “However, there is a good level of expertise here,” said Dr. Smith who during his four-day visit addressed a symposium on “Neuropsychiatric aspects of traumatic brain injury,” hosted by Dr. Erfan and Bagedo Hospital. He also studied some cases and examined patients.
Dr. Smith said he had been training doctors in neuropsychiatry from the Kingdom and elsewhere in the Gulf. “I’ve trained 10 of them from the Kingdom,” he added.