Especially if folks are on blood thinners, little accidental bumps can cause a lot of bleeding and need to be promptly checked out by medical people. I’m not sure if he was on blood thinners but many people are put on them as they get older to minimize stroke and blood clot risks.
Absolutely. A friend of my mom’s was on blood thinners; she had a fall and hit her head. She had a headache and called my mom the evening it happened to say she was going to have her son take her to the doctor the next day. Unfortunately she didn’t make it to morning.
Doctors should stress to patients on these drugs the importance of getting it checked out if they have an accidental fall. Or if you know anyone on these meds, be sure they are aware.
7 Likes
I had a dear friend fall on some ice when walking. He was with a nurse. She wanted him to go to ER to check it out as he was on blood thinners. He refused. He never recovered even tho they put him in a coma to try to save him. It was very sad.
Just out of curiosity - even if you got treatment early - w/brain bleeds, I didn’t think there was much one could do? (had a family member who had one and did not recover 
)
They can do surgery and drain the blood.
3 Likes
It just depends on various factors.
Often, with a serious head injury, there can be severe brain swelling. Sometimes it can be successfully addressed, but often it cannot be.
I saw way too many horrible TBI in the days I worked at the county hospital in the trauma ICU. After I left that unit, I never wanted to work in trauma ever again.
2 Likes
These deaths from people on blood thinners who hemorrhage do remind us that there are side effects for every medication and it’s always a balancing of risks vs benefits.
Prior to my friend’s severe injury and death due to blood thinners, I never thought of them much. I have a lot more respect for them now and am grateful that my mom doesn’t take any RX at this time.
2 Likes
Thanks, Nrdsb4. i suppose it does depend on the particular situation. I’d thought that - if you had to have one - ischemic vs. hemorrhagic stroke was better (?) since there is more doctors can do to dissolve a clot that deal with the devastation of a brain bleed. Obviously, no stroke is good.
HImom I’m sorry about your friend. So true - every medicine has a side-effect.
Just saw that he was Covid positive, too.
I wonder if he even knew he was. But I’m assuming that would have no effect on the hitting of head issue.
So very sad he’s gone.
Probably no effect. So sad… from this, it sounds like he hit his head quite hard.
You are right-ischemic stroke has better numbers in terms of morbidity and mortality. I was referring to TBI due to trauma rather than stroke. A bleeding brain injury vs. brain swelling-all bad, something you never want. Some can be addressed and mitigated, some cannot.
You NEVER want to have a brain bleed. I once had a patient who was having a hemorrhagic stroke. An essential part of stroke protocol is a CT scan to see if you’re dealing with ischemic vs hemorrhagic. A CT was not done (small rural hospital that didn’t follow protocol), and clot busting drugs were given. Well, this guy had a hemorrhagic stroke in progress when that drug (TPA) was given. He was transferred to our hospital and I saw the scans showing a disastrous outcome from that intervention. Family refused to recognize the situation and I was compelled to take care of this poor guy for a week. Complete, irreversible brain death had occurred, yet the family refused to acknowledge. That was 20 years ago, and I still remember it with horror.
He hit his head hard enough to cause all that damage and he just went to bed as if nothing had happened? There’s something missing here.
ETA: Also no mention of blood thinners. I wonder if the family will investigate further?
7 Likes
That’s really bizarre! How do you hit your head so hard that you have a skull fractures to the back of the head and around the eyes-and “think nothing of it”? And how did such a horrible injury happen by chance in a hotel room? Something sounds off here. Maybe the interpretation of the autopsy is a little off, not sure. One of the symptoms of a skull fracture is bruising around the eyes, not that there are fractures around the eyes.
And Covid too…could be a confounding variable.
This is a really strange story.
8 Likes
I too find this story really, really bizarre.
5 Likes
The report says there were no illicit drugs or toxins but if there was a mention of “no alcohol” I didn’t see it. Perhaps impaired judgment may have been a factor. I mean no disrespect and intend no judgment; am just trying to understand.
He had Covid in December. I read today that you can test positive for weeks after and that it probably wasn’t a factor.
I noticed that in all his recent photos, like in the last couple of years, he looked very unhealthy. His face seemed puffy and his eyes were off to me. The autopsy noted a 95 % blockage in one side of his heart too, so who knows what caused the fall.
Per CNN, no alcohol was present according to the report.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/10/entertainment/bob-saget-cause-of-death-report/index.html
A mild concussion, a fall, whatever, it could have confused his judgement & resulted in just going to bed
1 Like
We’ll never know what happened to him - how strange. My colleague hit her head in a bathroom fall recently and won’t be coming back for months.
A couple of hours ago CNN was reporting on the coroner’s report and they mentioned multiple skull fractures (??). They had a doc on the show - Sanjay Gupta’s boss apparently….who said it was hard for him to believe that from reading the report and knowing nothing else about Bob Sages - that that extend of brain trauma could be from a simple personal blow to the head - unless it was a SMACK on the hard tiled bathroom floor or something….
1 Like