What would account for a delayed reaction after a fall?
There are at least two possibilities. First, a pre-existing condition could be exacerbated by the head injury, says Jordan Grafman, chief of the cognitive neuroscience section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health. It’s not known if Richardson had any pre-existing brain conditions. Second, a fall could jar the brain inside the skull. “If the brain moved quickly, it could cause contusions [and] bleeding, and the bleeding could lead to increased intracranial pressure, and that could have severe consequences,” Grafman tells WebMD. That bleeding may take time to cause obvious problems. “Sometimes, the bleeding and the increase in pressure are delayed,” Grafman tells WebMD. Neurologist Russell Packard, MD, agrees. “You could get what’s called a subdural hematoma — the injury starts with some slow bleeding and so you seem fine at first, and then, within an hour or two hours … the start of a headache,” Packard tells WebMD.
