Big Dipper syndrome

Vital signs

Rollercoasters can result in serious brain injury, however well protected the head, say Canadian doctors. In the New England Journal of Medicine, they describe the case of a 64-year-old man who developed severe headaches after riding a rollercoaster which swung him upside down as many as six times. During the rides his head was enclosed within bars that kept him stable in a chair.

The man was found to have developed a large blood clot on the left side of his brain that had to removed by major surgery. The doctors, from Victoria Hospital, London, point out that during a rollercoaster ride, the brain may be thrown about within a relatively rigid skull - a danger already recognised in the shaken baby syndrome.