Concussions Rock!

I’m surrounded.

If you have taken the time to read my bio, you know that the chances that I am going to come across somebody with concussion symptoms are “better than the average bear”. Between the youth sports (coaching, watching and officiating), and life as a First Responder, one could say it is destiny.

Some recent studies show that there are reliable markers that a person has experienced a concussion, but the key is getting those folks for whom we suspect it’s possible to definitive medical care quickly. However, despite the media attention that concussion identification and management have received in recent years, there are still a large number of people who are perfectly willing to “walk it off” or “rub some dirt in it”.

Like many medical conditions, a concussion will often heal simply with time. However, like many conditions, the occurrence of each concussion increases the likelihood there will be a future concussion.

There are plenty of places you can go to learn what a concussion is, and how it can occur. The idea here is to give a few ideas on what an “average person” can do to identify the possibility that a concussion could exist. Last season, as my son’s U-13 soccer team was preparing for their playoff game, we were watching the game on the field before we started warming up. The prior game was a U-14 girls game, and was very competitive. One young lady struck the ball hard, and it caromed off of an opposing player’s knee, and back into her face. She stayed on her feet momentarily, and then took a knee, and eventually laid down. The officials stopped play, and after a few moments her coaches went to her aid. My first impression was that she got the ball in the eye, or the nose. However, her presentation was not that of a person who had one of those “minor injuries”; she wasn’t moving. My viewpoint switched quickly from interested fan to Emergency Medicine. I watched for maybe a minute before I decided to go down to the field. I approached the player, and identified myself to those around her as an EMT. The girl was conscious, and was now sitting in a chair that somebody had brought onto the field for her. “Mom” was also on the field at this time. I asked the player her name. I asked her what number she wore. I asked her the score of the game, the name of her coach, the name of her school, and her home room teacher. Of course, I didn’t know the answers myself, but those around me confirmed that she was answering appropriately. We picked up the chair, and gingerly removed her to the sidelines. She said that her head hurt, but she otherwise felt fine.

I provided “mom” with a few of the “look fors” (nausea, loss of memory, uncharacteristic nap, etc), and suggested that, despite her feeling “fine”, that perhaps a stop at Urgent Care or the ER on the way home might be in order, to which there was general agreement. Of course, part of being in EMS is that we don’t often find ot the “end result”, but out of an abundance of caution, it’s always prudent to seek out an evaluation, as opposed to “rubbing some dirt on it”.