For people with less severe injuries not requiring ambulance transport, a car may be taken to the hospital. If the person fails to regain consciousness after 5 minutes, or the injury was very severe even if 5 minutes has not passed, then do not move the person. Special care must be given to prevent movement of the neck to prevent spinal injuries. If the person needs to vomit, carefully roll the person onto his or her side without turning the head. Many people mistakenly believe that it is important to keep a person, especially children, awake after they have been struck on the head.
Children often are more emotionally upset than they are physically injured after a minor fall.
They will cry and be upset, but as the parent rushes them to the hospital, children may begin to calm down. Because they have expended a lot of physical and emotional energy crying, they will often want to fall asleep. You do not need to keep the child awake. In many cases it maybe helpful to the emergency doctor to be able to awaken the child who is now more calm and rested and will be able to behave normally. This gives the doctor a much better assessment of the severity of the head injury.