A Little More on Concussions

A colleague of mine reminded me of a story that she told me recently after reading my blog and thought it might be worth adding to this story.

This colleage asked me a couple of months ago about return to play standards after a concussion. The story told to me second hand a few months ago, so some of the details I may be a little fuzzy on. Her nephew was playing hockey when he sustained a very significant concussion. If I recall correctly, this was actually the second concussion he had suffered this season. The treating physician, a neurosurgeon, gave the athlete strict instructions to remain at home for a period of about 5-7 days. During this time he was to minimize stimulation as much as possible. This included no TV, video gaming, reading, and to minimize interactions with others. (This is being prescribed more often by physcians as a means to give the brain time to heal after the injury.) While a lot of research is continuing into this practice, on the surface, it makes sense that the brain would need time to heal.

Now for the disturbing part of the story. The teachers at his school, while reluctant to accept this plan of care, went along with it since they didn't want to cross a doctor's orders. However, the hockey coach was beside himself and was ready to throw this young man off the team when he didn't show up to support his teammates later in the week at another hockey game. Somehow, I guess he didn't think that being a spectator in a game that the young man cared greatly about was any kind of siginificant stimulation. It required parental intervention with the coach's supervisors to get the coach to back away from his threats.

This situation, I think, just reinforces the need for Athletic Trainers to be present and helping to inform coaches of just what is going on in with their althetes. I think that a lot of the headache in this case (no pun intended,) could have been averted with the right amount of education to all of the parties involved.