Concussions On The Rise For Girls Playing Basketball, Study Says

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Posted on 14th September 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Football and baseball have gotten most of the press, but concussions are also on the rise in basketball, girls’ basketball in particular, according to a study published Monday by the Pediatrics medical journal.

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/peds.2009-2497v1

The New York Times wrote a story about the study Tuesday, in a story headlined “In Basketball, Danger of Head Trauma.” The article notes that basketball is America’s most popular youth sport, with 1 million children participating, some 550,000 boys and 450,000 girls.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/13/in-basketball-danger-of-head-trauma/?ref=health

These are the kids who are getting more and more head injuries, since basketball is in fact a contact sport. The 11-year study found that  for the year 2007, roughly 375,000 children and teens went to hospital emergency rooms for basketball-related injuries. In 2007, 4 percent of those injuries were related to the head, twice as many as were reported in 1997, according to The Times.

About 109,000 children and teens received treatment for head injuries stemming from basketball during the span of the study, according to The Times, with some 12,000 in 2007. The percent of head injuries girls suffered during the time period covered by the study tripled, while it just doubled for boys, The Times said.   

According to a separate report in Pediatrics, basketball was responsible for more than 9 percent of athletic concussions for 8-  to 19-year-olds, putting it No. 2 among all youth sports, second only to football, which accounted for 22 percent, according to The Times. Soccer was No. 3, at 7.7 percent, and then came hockey and basketball, at just less than 4 percent each.

There are several theories about the rise in basketball head injuries, especially among girls. First, there is more public awareness of the danger of concussions. The sport may be getting more competitive, according to The Times. And girls may be more willing to ask for medical help when they are injured.    

 

 

 

New York Giants ‘Clarify’ Concussion History Of Tight End Kevin Boss

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Posted on 13th September 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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It looks like some NFL teams will do anything to keep a player on the field — including apparently not being forthcoming  about whether a player sustained a concussion.

The New York Giants organization should be a bit ashamed about their comments — and lack of transparency – last year about tight end Kevin Boss, when it denied that he had sustained a concussion.

The issue came up this week because Boss sustained a concussion playing Sunday against the Panthers, when he was hit as he jumped up to catch a pass. He said he never lost consciousness, but was “woozy for a second.”  

 http://www.nj.com/giants/index.ssf/2010/09/william_beatty_requires_foot_s.html

In the story, there was “a Giants’ clarification” regarding Boss’ concussion history with the team. It was a clarification of misinformation, by omisson, from the team itself.    

On Monday Giants Coach Tom Coughlin ‘fessed up, admitting that Boss had gotten a concussion last season. Yet Boss, who also had a concussion in 2008, ”endured multiple hard hits to the head last year but never missed a game because of a concussion,” according to The Ledger. 

Last year, “The team was adamant Boss did not suffer a concussion after getting hit hard (and illegally) in games against Arizona and San Diego. In fact, the Giants’  communications staff released a statement about Boss’ lack of concussion after those hits following a Daily News article in December suggested the Giants weren’t handling Boss with utmost care,” The Ledger reported Monday.

The Giants Monday finally came forth and “clarified” that Boss did in fact sustain a concussion last season, in a Thanksgiving game against the Broncos.  Boss continued to play in that game, and was only diagnosed with a concussion after it was over, the Giants claim. 

“By the time the Giants returned to practice the following week, Boss had been cleared to participate and was therefore not listed in the team’s injury report,” The Ledger reported.

And I guess it would have been asking too much for the Giants to have made Boss’ concussion public back then. 

And what was he doing playing again last season, after getting a concussion, when he’d sustained a concussion in 2008? The impact of concussions is cumulative. The Giants should have been extra careful about his safety last year, especially after the National Football League has come under fire last fall during congressional hearings on football and concussions. 

And now that the Giants have finally gone public about the truth about Boss’ concussion history, that admission “could complicate Boss’ return to the field,” The Ledger said.

It should.

      

 

Kidney Transplant Patient Gets More Than He Bargained For: Brain Injury And A $6 Million Settlement

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Posted on 8th September 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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A transplant patient who went into the hospital to get a kidney and wound up with brain damage will receive a $6 million settlement from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, the Sun-Times reported Wednesday. 

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/health/2684436,CST-NWS-KIDNEY08.article

The case involved diabetic Lauro Ortiz, who had been born with one kidney and sought to get another kidney so that he wouldn’t need dialysis. On Dec. 17, 2005, when Ortiz was 39, he learned that there was a kidney available for him and he received the transplant.

He was released from the hospital five days after his operation, but unbeknownest to him and his doctors, his new kidney had a fungal infection.  On Dec. 26 the organization that had supplied the kidney, Gift of Hope, both phoned and faxed Rush to warn the hospital that the kidney was infected, according to the Sun-Times. The hospital’s own test the next day confirmed that finding. 

But in an unfortunate mistake, Rush never contacted Ortiz to tell him there was a problem with the kidney. He was not feeling well, and was dizzy, so he returned to the hospital Jan. 13. It took Rush until almost a week later, until Jan. 19, to diagnose that Ortiz’s kidney infection had traveled to his brain.

So the kidney infection went untreated from Dec. 26 to Jan. 19, allowing it to spread to Ortiz’s brain.  

His attorney blamed the screw-up on the lack of communication at Rush. 

Ortiz had been a machinist before he sustained his brain injury. Now he lives with his mother in Chicago and has cognitive issues, including memory loss, according to the Sun-Times.

New Jersey Allows Private Helicopters To Pick Up Patients If They Are Closest To Scene

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Posted on 2nd September 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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 Time is of the essence when someone has sustained brain trauma, which is why I think New Jersey has made a wise decision regarding  the turf war between state-owned and private medical helicopters.

There’s been an ongoing dispute between the state medevac service and private copter companies, The Star-Ledger of Newark reported Thursday. But under new protocols that became effective immediately, whichever helicopter is closest to a patient — whether it’s owned by New Jersey or a private service — will be dispatched to that patient.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/nj_approves_controversial_chan.html

This marks a change from previous rules that gave the state priority to respond to 911 emergency calls, according to The Ledger.  There are three private companies that are licensed to transport patients in New Jersey.

The rub is that private helicopters will be more expensive for already over-burdened New Jersey taxpayers. The Ledger reported that a state helicopter flight only costs $1,337 compared with $3,500 if the flight is subsidized by Medicare and as much as $12,000 if an insurance company foots the bill.

But the extra cost is justified if it saves lives. 

The copter protocol first came under review after a 2006 motorcycle crash in Sparta, N.J., that injured a Franklin Township, N.J., man, according to The Ledger. A paramedic called for a copter from a private company, but the state rules overrode that and a New Jersey State Police helicopter was sent instead. It took 16 minutes longer to get to the accident scene than the private helicoper would have.

The Franklin Township man died of his injuries a week later.