BEING hit on the head by a stray golf ball can cause epilepsy. Paul Eldridge
and his colleagues from the Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery in
Liverpool describe four cases of young people struck by golf balls, who had
epileptic fits up to five years later (Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery
and Psychiatry, vol 68, p 251).
Golf balls travel at up to 210 kilometres per hour, and can transmit enough
energy across the skull to damage the brain severely. “Even if you are not
knocked out, the injury can be sufficiently severe to cause epilepsy,” says
Eldridge.
