Ex-Hockey Linesman Pat Dapuzzo Struggles With His Demons After Concussions

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Posted on 29th November 2011 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Hockey star Keith Primeau drives a hard bargain.

When former National Hockey League linesman Pat Dapuzzo wanted Primeau to appear at a charity event, Primeau said he would do it on one condition, according to The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/28/sports/hockey/for-ex-nhl-linesman-dapuzzo-recovery-doesnt-stop-when-injuries-heal.html?_r=1&ref=hockey

Primeau wanted Dapuzzo to do what he had done: agree to donate his brain and spinal cord to the Boston University Center for the Study of of Traumatic Encephalopathy.  That is the center that is studying the brains of deceased football players and other athletes to see if they had developed that brain disease, which has been linked to repetitive head injuries. 

Primeau and Dapuzzo share a bond that many pro hockey players and pro football players share, namely that their careers were cut short by the many concussions they suffered because of those sports, according to The Times.

Dapuzzo’s story was more gruesome than most. On Feb. 9, 2008 Dapuzzo was hit in the face by a skate blade, and it literally cut his nose off. Physicians sewed it back on, but it wasn’t the only injury that he received. He had a concussion, multiple bone fractures to his face, and bone fragments in his ears that caused bad earaches, according to The Times.

But perhaps worse of all, Dapuzzo fell into clinical depression, depression so bad that he sometimes wouldn’t open the door when his hockey friends came by. According to The Times, Dapuzzo had suffered from depression previously, in the 1990s. Then he got some insight into what might have caused it.

After the horrible injuries he sustained in 2008, Dapuzzo underwent a battery of neurological tests, and learned that he had sustained other concussions. In one instance, Dapuzzo recalled that he was hit in a collision, vomited in the penalty box and played the rest of the game, even though “the Meadowlands Arena was spinning around” him, The Times reported.

In the mid-1990s, Dapuzzo missed an entire season while he got treatment for depression.

A New Jersey resident, Dapuzzo is still dealing with bouts of depression. But he was recently hired as a scout for the Toronto Maple Leafs, which was the hook for The Times’s story on him. And he says he is thankful to have that chance to work again.      

Hockey Player Sidney Crosby Returns To Ice After 10-Month Hiatus After Concussions

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Posted on 25th November 2011 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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In what The New York Times called “the most closely chronicled concussion in hockey history,” Pittsburgh Penguin Sidney Crosby came back to the ice this week,   

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/sports/hockey/sidney-crosby-ready-for-return-to-ice.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=sidney%20crosby&st=cse

Crosby was benched for roughly 10 1/2 months, recovering from concussions that he suffered Jan. 1 and Jan. 5 this year. As The Times pointed out, it only took Crosby five minutes into his first game back to score a goal against the New York Islanders on Monday.

Crosby doesn’t seem any worse for wear. But we can’t help wondering what will happen when he takes another blow to the head. The effects of concussions are cumulative, as boxers and pro-football players can tell you. At least those that haven’t gotten dementia at a very young age because of their brain injuries.

And take our word for it, Crosby will take more hits to the head. That’s the kind of game hockey is.

Crosby is a superb hockey player. According to The Times, he was the “runaway scoring leader” at the start of the season. Then came the concussions.

On New Year’s night, Cosby was hit in the head by a sideswipe by Washington’s David Steckel. Cosby was hurt but stayed in the game. 

Four days later, Cosby was slammed into the boards by Tampa Bay Lightning’s Victor Hedman. Cosby remained in that game.

But here is what The Times said happened the next day.

“Crosby returned home, and the team announced that he had a mild concussion and would be out a few days. His symptoms worsened — headaches, spatial and balance problems, fogginess, in what Crosby would term a ‘roller-coaster’ experience. But he was allowed to begin off-ice workouts in late January and light skating in mid-March. By mid-April, however, he had to quit skating for three more months.”

Crosby returned to training in Septembr, was tested and was finally cleared by doctors Sunday to play again.

But Crosby does not seem to have learned his lession, from the quote he gave to The Times.

“There’s going to be more hits and probaby harder ones, and to know I got out of those ones OK, I think it gave me some reassurance,” he told the paper.

You are benched for nearly a year after several concussions, and that gave you “reassurance”? Really?  

Brain Injury Medicine Approved As A New Medical Subspecialty

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Posted on 24th November 2011 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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There was a big step taken recently that will go a long way toward guaranteeing that brain injury patients get doctors who are thoroughly schooled in that field of medicine. 

The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), which oversees the certification of physician specialists in the United States, has created a new subspecialty category: Brain Injury Medicine.

http://www.abms.org/News_and_Events/Media_Newsroom/Releases/release_Announcing_TwoNewSubspecialties_10312011.aspx

The ABMS Board of Directors and Assembly Representatives approved the subspecialty at their Sept. 20-21 meetings.   

Brain Injury Medicine will be offered by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (ABPMR) and the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN), the two organizations who sought creation of the subspecialty.

“As medicine continues to evolve, new subspecialties are created or enhanced to broaden the scope and quality of care provided to patients,” said Kevin B. Weiss, MD, ABMS President and CEO.  “This will allow physicians seeking to practice in these areas to become certified, which will signal to their patients that they are highly qualified to practice in their specialty.”

According to the ABMS, the Brain Injury Medicine subspecialty was developed to provide: core competency standards for physician training in evaluating and providing non-surgical treatment of patients with brain injuries; a high level of care for patients with acquired brain injuries and their families in hospital and post-acute care settings and over the continuum of care to facilitate the process of recovery and improve medical and functional outcomes; and  Brain Injury Medicine administrative skills to assist physicians in activities such as program development, quality assurance, facilities planning and standards development.

“The new subspecialty was created because of the increased need for diagnosis and treatment options for patients with brain injuries and the growing need to monitor, assess and advance new technologies for patients,” said Anthony Tarvestad, JD, ABPMR Executive Director.  “With this new certification, brain injury medicine specialists will lead the way in providing optimal, advanced and cost-effective care for patients with brain injuries.”

Larry Faulkner, MD, ABPN  President and CEO has a similar comment.

“With increasing awareness of the prevalence and lasting effects of brain injury, it is expected that this new specialty will serve to advance the training and document the expertise of physicians who diagnose and treat patients with these potentially debilitating conditions,” Faulkner said in a statement. 

In its announcement about the new Brain Injury Medicine subspecialty, the ABPRM quoted one of its directors, Dr. Karen Kowalske, as saying, “Leaders in BIM (Brain Injury Medicine) have been laying the groundwork for recognition for the last 10 years.”

https://www.abpmr.org/documents/brain_injury_announcement.pdf

The move by the ABMS is important, according to the ABPMR. Now Brain Injury Medicine  training programs can become accredited, new programs can be developed and patients can rest assured that doctors who are board certified in Brain Injury Medicine  have completed advanced training in that field.

The first Brain Injury Medicine examination has been set for fall 2014. 

NFL Dropped The Ball And Failed San Diego’s Kris Dielman, Who Suffered Seizure After Concussion

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Posted on 5th November 2011 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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The National Football League is giving lip service to the notion that it is taking concussions seriously, but head injuries are still falling through the cracks. Take the case of San Diego’s Kris Dielman.

On Oct. 23 Dielman was hurt when there was “about 12 minutes left in the game” against the New York Jets,  The New York Times reported.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/sports/football/nfl-officials-get-new-directive-on-concussions.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=concussions&st=cse

It was obvious that he had sustained a head injury. He was having problems maintaining his balance while out on the gridiron. Yet he was not immediately pulled out of the game. He finished playing it, and was not assessed for a concussion until afterward.

Guess what? Dielman had a seizure on the flight back to California from New York.

In light of what happened to Dielman, the NFL last week put out a directive advising game officials to carefully look for symptoms of concussions in pro players, according to The Times.

An NFL spokesman told The Times, “Our game officials will receive concussion-awareness training and will reman alert to possible concussions during games.”

Isn’t “concussion-awareness” what the NFL and newspapers across the country have been talking about for at least the past two years?

Who dropped the ball here? Who failed Dielman?