It is critically important to report findings of a head injury to medical personnel at the scene, since a lack of rapid and appropriate medical care can worsen the head injury and the eventual outcome. Head trauma can be either blunt or penetrating.

Blunt head trauma is a result of blunt force, acceleration, or deceleration forces such as in an explosion or blast event, motor vehicle crashes or roll-overs, falls or sports injuries. Penetrating trauma is usually from gunshot wounds, stabbings or fragmentation from explosives. Signs and symptoms of a head injury include:

- Altered consciousness
- Disorientation or dizziness
- Headache
- Ringing in the ears
- Nausea and/or vomiting
- Amnesia (meaning they don’t remember where they are or what happened)
- Double vision

Head injuries must be reported and documented, so any information you can collect about the potential mechanisms of injury or observations after interacting with the casualty is very important.