Penetrating Skull Injures in Children - How would you handle this?

Make Believe Story: You arrive on scene and find a young boy who's father had been drinking too much while throwing darts. From the lack of visible metal from the dart

tip, you can assume the dart entered the skull over 1-inch deep. You arrive on scene... now what?

Update: I can't believe I was able to find the actual medical article and photos for this incident. For the purposes of this post, I invented the scenario but now that there have been a significant number of responses, here's the real story...

The Real Story: A ten-year-old child was playing darts with his older brother. He went to retrieve his throw from the dartboard when an errant toss struck him above the right eye. A case report... (Full Story)

Here's the X-Rays:

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Capt.Alex Arnold on April 23, 2010 at 11:22am

This is where I would have to disagree with you Crabby. I usually don't except during football season. ;) Honestly you can't compare this to a "spanking" in public. Earlier you also wrote about (excuse the paraphrase) how this could be just about any kid. Your right there, kids get hurt. You said along the lines of the kid may have been told to stay outta the way, there lies the issue. They continued to drink and throw these darts when the child was around. See I'm kind of old fashion that way in realizing that they are the kid and I am the adult. If they are not paying attention when I am doing something hazardous in their environment then I stop doing the dangerous thing until they comply or I spank their arse. I take my kids (once they are old enough and "understand" the dangers) target shooting. If they are constantly running out into the target area I don't yell at them to get outta the way and continue to shoot. What's the difference besides the speed of the projectile? I don't continue to "throw darts".
It is about accountability. That is the thing that we as leaders in this service are always screaming our heads off about, be accountable for your actions. Should this expectation just be limited to us in the fire/rescue service? NO, in-fact (excuse me while I kick my soapbox over this way) it is one of the big issues I feel is facing us today. It doesn't matter your party line, religion, sex, blah,blah,blah. I feel that some people don't feel they need to be accountable, because someone else is going to come behind them and fix it if it goes wrong. The government will help. REALLY. Ok I'll jump off the box and pass it around now.