| Hard Knocks Concussions are more serious than previously thought By Jim Correale (Published in the newspapers of Current Publishing in October, 2005.) On the opening kickoff of the Westbrook High School football team�s scrimmage against Massabesic in late August, Anthony Cook charged down the field in pursuit of the opposing kick returner. Before he could get there, the junior was blindsided by a blocker and went down hard. Cook got up, but was unsteady on his feet. On the sideline � as he was attended to by Kristin Ryan, the Westbrook trainer � Cook talked of getting back in the game and scoring a touchdown. That night, he was taken for a CAT scan. Cook, however, remembers none of this. All of the details from that night are missing from his memory, right up until 5 a.m. the next morning. �I remember waking up and saying, �What happened to me?� Cook said. �My mom told me everything and I said, �Oh my god. I can�t believe this.�� Cook had suffered a mild concussion, sometimes referred to as a �ding� or "getting your bell rung.� According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 300,000 Americans receive concussions or similar brain injuries each year, most of them high school and college athletes. In recent years, as research has shown that concussions are more serious and their effects longer lasting than previously assumed, many of those who work with student-athletes � coaches, trainers, school nurses, athletic directors and doctors � are responding in ways that reflect a deeper understanding of this seriousness. �It�s truly a brain injury,� said Dr. William Heinz, a specialist at Orthopedic Associates of Portland, �and we don�t take chances with brain injuries.� Today, the accepted definition for a concussion, according to Heinz, is �a mild traumatic brain injury.� The function of the brain is altered in some way, though there is usually no structural damage. �A CAT scan or MRI are completely insensitive to it. Nothing shows. It looks completely normal,� Heinz said. �Well, the kid�s not normal.� Cook certainly didn�t feel normal after his concussion. �I was not myself during the first week,� he said. �I was very lightheaded and I got headaches once in a while. I knew where I was and what was going on, but I felt like I was floating around a little bit.� Cook also said, and Ryan confirms, that there was a change in his temperament. He said that he �got angry really quick.� Sometimes that anger was directed toward Ryan, who was, to Cook�s thinking, the person preventing him from rejoining his team. Such a change in character can be one of the symptoms of a concussion. Elaine Conant witnessed that up close when her son, Jon, was a goalkeeper in his senior year at Windham Christian Academy and got knocked unconscious by a knee to the teeth. It was his second concussion within two weeks and the fourth of his life. �My easygoing son had a change of personality,� said Conant. �He couldn�t function in class. He was in a fog.� Conant has seen a �fair amount� of concussions in her job as a nurse at Bonny Eagle High School, including three in the first month of this year�s fall sports season. Because of her personal experience, she is tuned into the consequences of a hit to the head. �It has a huge effect on school work and then begins to affect self-esteem,� Conant said. �(The students) don�t feel the same. They turn into someone they don�t recognize.� Ursula Vollkommer, the former athletic trainer at Bonny Eagle, now at Waynflete, said there were six students in her eight years with the Scots that had to stop playing sports altogether. �You see how it affects their lives � grades, personal life and personality,� Vollkommer said. �There were �A� students who could no longer function at school.� Though Jon Conant�s injuries happened just seven years ago, he said that while on the sideline he was asked, �How many fingers am I holding up?� by someone trying to decide how badly the young man was hurt. Today schools and medical professionals are using much more sophisticated tools to assist them in diagnosing concussions and deciding when, and if, athletes should be allowed to return to action. In the spring of 2000, when Vollkommer heard about a software program that would allow her to measure students� brain function, she talked to Heinz about it. The program is called Immediate Postconcussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (or ImPACT), and it�s used by 400 high schools and 150 colleges around the country, as well as the National Football League and National Hockey League. ImPACT �measures brain processing, such as speed, memory and visual motor skills,� according to the web site of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where the system was developed. After using the program, Vollkommer said, �I really started to see that students say they are fine when there are other things going on.� ImPACT is �a neuropsych testing platform,� said Heinz. It provides hard data for trainers, school nurses and doctors who are trying to determine the extent of an athlete�s injury and, as a result, what course of action to take. After a pilot program at Bonny Eagle proved successful, the doctor went to the boards of directors at Orthopedic Associates and HealthSouth Portland and convinced them to purchase copies of the software for local high schools. |