201k views
1 vote
Upon assessing a 32-year-old victim of a motorcycle crash, you find that he is only partially responsive. You notice that his eyes only open when verbally addressed and only for a few moments. He also appears to be confused and withdraws from painful stimuli. How would you rate him on the Glasgow Coma Scale?

User Smiksky
by
7.6k points

1 Answer

5 votes

Final answer:

The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is used to assess the level of consciousness in a person with a brain injury. In this case, the patient's eyes only open briefly when verbally addressed, indicating a low score on the eye opening component. The full GCS score cannot be determined from the given information.

Step-by-step explanation:

The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is used to assess the level of consciousness in a person with a brain injury. It evaluates three components: eye opening, verbal response, and motor response. The scale ranges from 3 to 15, with a lower score indicating a more severe injury.

In this case, the patient's eyes only open briefly in response to verbal stimulation, which corresponds to a score of 3 in the eye opening component. Since the question does not provide information about the patient's verbal and motor responses, we cannot determine the full GCS score. However, based on the given information, the patient's level of consciousness is significantly impaired, indicating a serious brain injury.

When these individual scores are summed, the GCS rating for the victim is 3 (eye) + 4 (verbal) + 4 (motor) = 11 out of a possible 15.

Based on the GCS scale, a score of 11 suggests that the victim has a moderate head injury and would require further assessment and medical intervention to ensure the best possible outcome.

User MarkRoland
by
8.1k points