A giant slingshot. A watermelon. And a woman's face. It'll all make sense after you watch this clip from CBS's "The Amazing Race."
I mean, OUCH, right? But the clip left us wondering: How do you come back from a watermelon smash to the face?! "She's lucky," says Dr. Stephen Epstein, a spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians, who practices emergency medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Epstein interrupted a nice day at home with the family for Rosh Hashanah to watch (and rewatch and rewatch) the silly video. In slo-mo. "It looks like the point of impact was sort of between the eyes and the lower part the forehead, 'cause if it hit her nose she would've broken it. It's obviously a lot more force than heading a soccer ball, but it's the same type of thing." Watch TODAYshow.com's Courtney Hazlett discuss the watermelon smash Right after getting watermeloned, we hear the poor lady say "I can't feel my face" and "I have the worst headache." Based on that, Epstein has a hunch that she may have had a concussion. Obviously, we don't know what happened behind the scenes, but let’s hope the show producers got her immediate medical attention. Serious head trauma isn’t always easy to spot. A person may seem fine one moment with no obvious head bleeding or fracture. But within a few hours or days, bruising or swelling, severe headache, slurred speech or vomiting could develop. That’s a sign of something way more serious. "Even though it might be considered ‘just a watermelon’, it still could have posed a potentially serious injury to the head or the neck," says Dr. Dennis Allin, chairman of emergency medicine at the University of Kansas Hospital. "While the woman appears to be fine in the video, many symptoms of head and neck injuries are not immediately apparent." After a blow to the head, the brain needs time to heal. For kids, that means a few days without contact sports. For this lady -- maybe step away from the giant slingshot. Find The Body Odd on Twitter and on Facebook.
