Lessons Learned from a Head Injury or What Can I Learn from Busting My Head Open

I was out hiking recently on some abandoned railroad tracks and climbing on the box cars and metalworks and … SMACK!

I hit a beam with my head so hard it made me go blank for a second. I was up on a ladder at the time. I do not even remember coming down. At the bottom I reached up to touch my head and check the injury. I felt my fingers go into the wound. That was when I fell to my knees and the blood started pouring out.

Head injuries bleed a lot anytime, but when you sever an artery, it’s much much worse. My superficial temporal artery was severed on the left side and there was an eight inch opening across the top of my head.

I was with my wife and oldest son. She bandaged it up really quick with the gauze from my IFAK, but it bled through in seconds. Then she took off her shirt, zipped her coat back on, and bandaged it with that.

Then we had to hike out to a road somewhere. It took awhile. It turned out the closest way out was over the tracks, through a muddy field, over several ditches, and climbing over and around two fences. Thankfully I didn’t pass out. My wife isn’t a weakling, but it’s not easy for anyone to carry 230 pounds of pure man.

But we made it.