A 13-year-old was brought to the ED, unconscious, after being hit in the head by a baseball. When the child regains consciousness, 5 hours after being admitted, he cannot remember the traumatic event. MRI shows no structural sign of injury. What injury would the nurse suspect the patient has?

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In a grade 3 concussion there is a loss of consciousness lasting from seconds to minutes. Temporal lobe involvement results in amnesia. Frontal lobe involvement can cause uncharacteristic behavior and a grade 1 concussion does not involve loss of consciousness. Diagnostic studies may show no apparent structural sign of injury, but the duration of unconsciousness is an indicator of the severity of the concussion. Diffuse axonal injury (DAI) results from widespread shearing and rotational forces that produce damage throughout the brainto axons in the cerebral hemispheres, corpus callosum, and brain stem. In cerebral contusion, a moderate to severe head injury, the brain is bruised and damaged in a specific area because of severe acceleration-deceleration force or blunt trauma.

A 13-Year-Old Was Brought to the ED, Unconscious, After Being