Why is a player with a head injury vulnerable to losing his tongue and dying?

Head injury often results in seizures, unconsciousness, inactive muscle systems, and indentation in the tongue, causing airway obstruction and death.

The world football village recently witnessed a fierce crash, Atletico team player Fernando Torres jumped into a dispute with a host defender and received a powerful push from the back to knock his head down. land then unconscious. While waiting for a first-aid worker, the captain Gabi quickly used Torres 'hand to pull Torres' tongue to prevent the victim from swallowing himself, avoiding the risk of death. Gabi received a compliment from the doctor for a very professional first aid management skill.

Picture 1 of Why is a player with a head injury vulnerable to losing his tongue and dying?
Gabi quickly pulled Fernando Torres's tongue to avoid the risk of losing his tongue to suffocate.(Photo: Telegraph).

With many years of experience in emergency work at the Faculty of Foreign Affairs, Danang Tri Tri General Hospital, Dr. Nguyen Kim Thong, seeing head injury is a very serious injury, often leads to coma, yes jerk. At this time, there are 2 risks:

First , when the victim loses consciousness, the muscular system is no longer active, including the tongue. According to the conventional mechanism, the tongue will indent in causing airway obstruction, even if there is a risk of gastric discharge into the lungs, causing shortness of breath.

Secondly , the victims could have seizures that lead to tongue bites and death.

The doctor advised people to equip basic first aid knowledge in order to timely manage when detecting victims of head injury. There are 3 basic first aid steps to reduce the risk of injury to victims as follows:

Picture 2 of Why is a player with a head injury vulnerable to losing his tongue and dying?
Lift your chin with your hand, squeeze the mouth of the victim with your thumb and forefinger.

  1. Step 1 : Clear the airway by tilting the victim's head back, lifting the chin with your hand, using your thumb and forefinger to squeeze the victim's mouth hard.
  2. Step 2 : Tug the lower jaw downwards, spreading the victim's mouth wide.
  3. Step 3 : Use the other hand to clamp the tongue with 2 fingers, pull forward and wait until the medical staff arrives. If the physician is not present at the scene, keep this position and call 115. Note: Limit the victim transfer.If you want to take the victim to the hospital, you should call a support person and put the victim on a stretcher before transporting.