when should you go to the emergency room after hitting your head pretty hard

Hello, Anon!

Thank you for your question today.

Not every head injury requires a trip to the ER. But if you sustain a head injury with any of the following symptoms, you should be seen in an emergency room:

-Loss of consciousness at the time of the injury
-Confusion or disorientation after the injury
-A headache along with nausea and/or vomiting
-Evidence of deteriorating mental status

Also, if you experience any of these symptoms within 24 hours of a head injury, you need to go to the emergency room, even if you felt okay at the time of injury.

Even without any symptoms, some people wish to err on the side of caution and have their head injury checked out if the impact to the head was fairly hard. But as mentioned above, some symptoms might not show immediately.

Helena