Keywords
delayed diagnosis
How to Cite
Abstract
Post-traumatic intracranial hematoma (PTIH) is simply defined as bleeding in the brain due to head injury. The diagnosis of PTIH in our environment is often delayed or missed due to several factors arising from the patients, their relatives, decisions of healthcare providers and/or that of the National and States health policy makers. In this paper we report a typical case of missed PTIH with fatal outcome due to multiple factors, and also discuss other similar documents from the literature. High levels of financial constraints coupled with low levels of health education awareness among citizens are some of the identified contributory patient-based factors, which could be minimized by regular community health education and communication programs. For healthcare workers, continued educational programs could help reduce diagnostic mistakes and improve clinical assessment skills as well as management protocols. On the other hand, sincere commitment of our health policy makers at all levels could ensure the availability of effective public self-empowerment schemes as well as affordable diagnostic and therapeutic neurosurgical healthcare facilities through inclusive health insurance schemes. The adoption of these multi-faceted initiatives collectively can improve our citizens’ health-seeking behaviour, reduce delayed recognition and misdiagnosis, increase timely intervention and foster favourable neurological outcomes of patients that sustain PTIHs in our environment.