NFL Owns Up To Long-Term Dangers Of Concussions In New Locker Room Poster

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Posted on 28th July 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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I wonder to what extent the National Football League has really changed its stance on concussions. 

The league, long criticized for downplaying and denying the long-term damage of of concussions, is making a poster for team locker rooms that will spell out rather frankly the dangers of brain injury, according to The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/sports/football/27concussion.html?ref=football

The paper published a picture of the league’s new poster with the story it published Tuesday, which was headlined “NFL Asserts Greater Risks of Head Injury.”

The poster, which The Times says will also be given to players in a brochure form, boldly notes the connection of concussions to depression and the early onset of dementia. It also warns that repeated concussions “can change your life and your family’s life forever,” according to The Times.

And the poster also has photos depicting kids playing sports, reminding the pro players that “other athletes are watching.”

 The idea of  creating the new poster comes from the NFL’s new head, neck and spine medical committee, with the support of league commissioner Roger Goodell, The Times reported.  And the text was written by the medical committee along with the players’ union and the Centers for Disease Control. 

But Times reporter Alan Schwartz also noted that the NFL is still giving former players who have symptoms of early-onset dementia a hard time over disability payments. The older players have been deemed ineligible for the richer disability payments that players with on-field injuries receive.

 

Here’s Wishing 8-Year-Old New Jersey Boxer Would Stay Out Of The Ring

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Posted on 16th July 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Young boxer Vito Mielnicki, eight year old, is a contender.

The boy from Roseland, N.J., hopes to compete for the Junior Golden Gloves title later this month in Las Vegas. Vito, who weighs 57 pounds, was profiled on the front page of  The Star-Ledger of Newark last Saturday. I cringed when I read that article. 

 http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/07/8-year-old_roseland_boy_domina.html

In terms of brain injury, boxing is dangerous enough for adults. But it’s especially risk-ridden for young kids like Vito, whose brains are still being developed.

The Ledger did talk to a surgeon, Dr. Vincent McInerney at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson, about the risks of boys Vito’s age boxing. He pointed out that boys that age have heads that are out of proportion to the rest of their bodies. 

“Their neck muscles are weaker, so they are more susceptible to head injuries, and children also don’t recover as quickly as adults,” the physician told The Ledger.

In defense of the sport, it was noted that the headgear and padded gloves used in youth boxing today help ward off brain injury. And Vito’s football coach, Bob Burke, said that the safety measures at bouts now are much stricter than they used to be.

For example, matches are only three one-minute rounds. And if a kid gets hit hard, a referee will stop the bout, count to eight and then call for a ringside physician if the child still isn’t OK. 

For me, these boxing precautions will never be safe enough.  And Vito is engaging in not just one but two sports — football and boxing — that are known to result in concussions.

My heart went out to Vito’s mother, who seems to be the only wise one in the Mielnicki household. She told The Ledger that she gets so nervous when Vito fights that she closes her eyes.

“If it was my choice, I wouldn’t have put him in it because, of course, every mother gets nervous,” she told the paper. “It’s a very contact sport, one-on-one, but my son loves it.”  

When asked what he likes about boxing Vito said he enjoys training, he likes winning and he likes getting trophies.

 That’s all well and good, Vito, but it’s not worth the risks you are taking of potentially damaging your brain for life. 

 

 

 

Grieving Father Of Mixed Martial Arts Fighter Killed By Brain Injury Should Stop Defending The ‘Sport’

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Posted on 1st July 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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 I’d like to think that one day I won’t  have to write another one of these types of blogs. But today is not that day.

On Monday mixed martial arts fighter Michael Kirkham died of a brain hemorrhage that he sustained Saturday during his professional MMA debut. His death is under investigation by the South Carolina Athletic Commission.

http://www.mmafighting.com/2010/06/28/michael-kirkham-dies-following-pro-mma-debut/

 http://www.mmafighting.com/2010/06/29/commission-to-launch-review-of-fight-leading-to-death-of-michael/?ncid=edlinkusspor00000004

Kirkham is the second fighter to die in a certified MMA match. I’d like to hope he’ll be the last.  But I’m not so sure about that.  

 The match was held in the sleepy town in Aiken, S.C. Giant 6-foot-9, 30-year-old Kirkham was competing in the “Confrontationat the Convocation Center,” an event that was regulated by the South Carolina Athletic Commission, which is doing an internal probe of the fight.   

Kirkham was hit and lost consciousness early on in his fight, and couldn’t be rousted. He received medical care from a doctor and medics in the ring and then was taken out by stretcher. 

He was brought to Aiken Regional Medical Center, and never regained consciousness from the time he was struck in the ring to his stay at the hospital.

A memorial service was held for Kirkham on Tuesday in Beardstown, Ill. His father, Dennis Kirkham, told a local newspaper that he absolves the fighter who was in physical combat with his son, and doesn’t blame him for Michael’s death. 

http://www.myjournalcourier.com/common/printer/view.php?db=journalcourier&id=27718

 The elder Kirkham also vigorously defended mixed martial arts, despite the tragic death of his son. The father said that more people have died playing football than in MMA matches, so mixed martial arts shouldn’t be banned, despite what the sport’s critics say. If you bar mixed martial arts, you should bar most sports, according to the grieving father.

Most respectfully, we think he should rethink that logic.

It’s one thing to forgive someone who accidentally killed your son. Don’t defend the sport, which really is to blame for the death.

 

 

  

      

 

Michigan Boxing Club Settles Lawsuit Where Youth Suffered Brain Damage In A Match

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Posted on 28th June 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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There’s been a settlement in a case involving a Lansing, Mich., boy who sustained traumatic brain injury during a boxing match.

http://www.freep.com/article/20100616/NEWS06/100616115/Boxing-club-settles-lawsuit-over-Lansing-boy-s-injury

The negligence lawsuit had been filed in 2008 by the family of Juan Contreras against the Crown Boxing Club in Lansing and its affiliate, USA Boxing, which governs amateur boxing. The amount of the settlement wasn’t disclosed.

Contreras, now 15,  was in a fight March 15, 2008 in Kalamazoo, Mich., where he sustained his brain injury. The youth had joined Crown Boxing In February of that year, and won his first match that month. The bout where he was badly injured was his second fight, which was against a 13-year-old.

 After being treated at hospitals in Kalamazoo, Lansing and Ann Arbor, Contreras is living at home now.

But he is in an impaired state of consciousness, and doesn’t respond to communication. But he breathes on his own, moves his limbs and opens his eyes.   

 

  

Girls More Susceptible To Concussions Than Boys In Soccer

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Posted on 22nd June 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Girls are more likely than boys to get concussions while playing kids’ soccer, according to The Wall Street Journal. So maybe it’s time to think twice about having your daughter play the sport.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704895204575320661089359330.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_sports

There are a number of differences between the kinds of injuries that boys get versus girls while out on the soccer field. In addition to concussions, girls are more likely to suffer from heat illness and to injure a ligament on their supporting leg, The Journal said.

With boys, their dominant leg is most likely to be injured.

In statistics for high school soccer, 18.5 percent of  the injuries for girls are in the head and face, versus 12.4 percent for boys, according to data from the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital that was cited by The Journal.  

Neck injuries account for 1.8 percent of overall girls’  soccer injuries, and for 0.4 percent of boys’ injuries.

There are several theories about why the injuries for the two sexes differ, according to experts quoted by The Journal, having to do with their different physiques and the way they play. There is also the notion that girls are more willing to talk about their symptoms than boys.

The article offers an anecdote from a New Jersey man whose teen-aged son and daughter both play soccer. The boy has suffered muscle strain, while the girl has had a concussion and broke her nose once. The Journal quotes the  father as saying that “it’s disturbing when your kid is saying her head hurts and she doesn’t feel good.”

Well, it should be disturbing, and worrisome. Nonetheless, efforts to mandate that kids wear helmets while playing soccer have failed.  

Scientists believe that girls may get more concussons than boys ” because girls’ neck muscles are not as strong or because they are more likely to report their injuries,” according to The Journal. And crashes into other players, not “heading” the ball, cause the concussions.

Today high school soccer teams usually make players suspected of  having a concussion — with symptoms like loss of consciousness, headaches, confusion and dizziness – get an OK from a doctor before coming back to play. 

 That’s what the National Federation of State High School Associations says should be done. 

 

 

Woman With Brain Injury Sues Over Foreign Accent Syndrome

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Posted on 9th June 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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It sounds unbelievable, and even doctors said they thought it was a joke. But there is a unique phenomenon where those who sustain a traumatic brain injury wind up speaking with a foreign accent.

 The Washington Post recently did a story on Foreign Accent Syndrome, which  the  paper described as a “a rare and little-understood medical condition that can follow a serious brain injury.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/28/AR2010052801724_pf.html

Less than 60 cases of the Foreign Accent Syndrome have been reported globally. And one doctor who has studied some of their brain images said that when he first heard about the syndrome, he thought it was someone’s joke, not real.

The Post story profiled one of them. Robin Vanderlip woke up speaking with a Russian accent after falling down stairs and hitting her head in May 2007. Vanderlip is an East Coast native, but people now constantly ask her where she is from.

The National Institutes of Health and the University of Maryland are both studying Vanderlip’s case. What happened to the 42-year-old woman has happened, and been reported on, before.

The first case was reported toward the end of World War II by a neurologist who was treating a Norwegian woman. She sustained a head injury from shrapnel and went into a coma. She woke up speaking with a German accent, which prompted her own countrymen to ostracize her.

There Post cites from other examples people demonstrating  Foreign Accent Syndrome after suffering a brain injury. They include: a Louisiana woman who began speaking with a Cajun dialect; a woman from England who now has a Jamaican accent; and a Boston resident with a Scottish burr.

Vanderlip has been extremeley despondent about her condition. She has a suit pending against the National 4-H Council, seeking $1 million in damages. She fell on the stairs in the council’s building in Chevy Chase, Md., falling backward and hitting her head. Her suit charges that the stairs were unsafe.

Massachusetts Senate Approves Sports Concussion Bill

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Posted on 7th June 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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The Massachusetts Senate unanimously passed a bill regarding sports concussions in student athletes. http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1259191&format=text

The proposed legislation would set up a head-injury safety training program for coaches, trainers and parent volunteers who take part in school athletics. Doctors and nurses employed by a school would also be trained to spot signs of concussions.

Another part of the bill requires health officials to keep coaches  up-to-date on athletes who have had prior head injuries. That will enable schools to identify students at greater risk for repeated injuries.

Young people participating in sports or recreational activities sustain between 1.6 million to 3.8 million concussions each year, most of which are not diagnosed, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

The text of the bill is as follows:

SENATE, No. 2267

Senate, February 10, 2010

The committee on Public Health, to whom was referred the petition (accompanied by petition, Senate, No. 796), relating to safety regulations for school athletic programs, reported, recommending a new draft of the same title (Senate, No. 2267).

Susan C. Fargo,
For the committee

Version with line numbers

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

In the Year Two Thousand and Nine.

AN ACT RELATING TO SAFETY REGULATIONS FOR SCHOOL ATHLETIC PROGRAMS.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

 

Chapter 111 of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding at the conclusion thereof the following new section:

Section 223

This Section shall apply to all public schools within the Commonwealth and to any other school in the Commonwealth whose athletic programs are subject to Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association rules.  

The department shall direct the Division of Violence and Injury Prevention to develop an interscholastic athletic Head Injury Safety Training program to be completed by the following individuals: coaches, trainers and parent volunteers for any extracurricular athletic activity; physicians who are employed by a school or school district, or who volunteers to assist with an extracurricular athletic activity; directors responsible for a school marching band; and a parent or legal guardian of a child who participates in an extracurricular athletic activity.

In developing said program, the department may use any of the materials readily available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Red Cross.  The safety training shall include, but not be limited to current training in recognizing the symptoms of potentially catastrophic head and neck injuries, concussions, and injuries related to second impact syndrome.

As part of the interscholastic athletic Head Injury Safety Training program, school districts shall provide to students participating in any extracurricular athletic activity the following information;  a summary of department rules and regulations relative to safety regulations for student participation in extracurricular athletic activities;  including protocol for post concussion participation or participation in an extracurricular athletic activity after becoming unconscious; and written information related to the recognition of symptoms of head injuries, information regarding the biology and short-term and long-term consequences of concussions.

The department shall develop forms to provide coaches with up-to-date information of their athletes head injury history to enable them to identify those students who are at greater risk for repeated head injuries.  These forms would require students to provide information each season relative to their sports head injury history prior to receiving clearance to participate in an extracurricular athletic activity.  These forms would require the signature of both the student and their parent or legal guardian.  

A coach, trainer or volunteer for an extracurricular athletic activity shall not encourage or permit a student participating in the activity to engage in any unreasonably dangerous athletic technique that unnecessarily endangers the health of a student, including using a helmet or any other sports equipment as a weapon.

If a student participating in an extracurricular athletic activity becomes unconscious during a practice or competition the student may not return to the practice or competition during which the student became unconscious; or participate in any extracurricular athletic activity until the student receives written authorization for such participation from a physician.

If a student, suffers a concussion as diagnosed by a medical professional, while participating in an extracurricular athletic activity the student may not participate in any extracurricular athletic activity until the student receives written authorization for such participation from a physician.

The superintendent of the school district or the director of a school shall maintain complete and accurate records of the district’s or school’s compliance with the requirements of this section.  A school that is determined by the school’s superintendent or director to be out of compliance with this section shall be subject to penalties as determined by the department.

This section does not waive any liability or immunity of a school district or its officers or employees. This section does not create any liability for a course of legal action against a school district, or its officers or employees.

A person who volunteers to assist with an extracurricular athletic activity is not liable for civil damages arising out of an act or omission relating to the requirements of this section, unless the act or omission is willfully or wanton negligent.

The departments shall promulgate rules and regulations to carry out the provisions of section 223 of chapter 111 of the General Laws within 90 days of the effective date of this act; provided that these regulations shall become effective for the fiscal year following final approval of said regulations; provided, however, that not less than 12 months shall have elapsed between final approval of the regulations and the date of implementation in order to provide sufficient time to implement the regulations.

 

College Football Player In Oregon Dies Of Brain Injuries From Scrimmage

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Posted on 10th May 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Another tragedy has struck a young football player on the field.

Dylan Steigers, a 21-year-old Eastern Oregon University football player, died a day after he sustained brain injuries after being struck in the head during a scrimmage Saturday. 

Steigers, who had been a football star at Sentinel High School in Missoula,, Mont., walked off the field after being hit, but then threw up while on the sidelines. Vomiting after taking such a blow is considered a sign of concussion, according to a press release put out by Eastern Oregon.  http://chinook.eou.edu/ua_story/index.cfm?ID_num=979

Following protocol, an EOU certified trainer called 911, the university said. Steigers was transported to Grand Ronde Hospital, and then sent via LifeFlight to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise. Medical staff told university officials that he suffered an acute subdural hematoma as a result of contact to the head.

The youth, who was found to be brain dead, was on life support until Sunday afternoon, when he died. His family took  him off the apparatus.   

“It’s hard to describe the emotions we all feel about losing Dylan,” EOU President Bob Davies said. “I sat with Dylan’s family during the scrimmage, and had the chance to connect with them. Dylan was an exceptional young man who loved to play football, and he had a bright future ahead of him. This is a loss we will feel for a very long time. We are reaching out to Dylan’s family in this time of loss.”

EOU Head Coach Tim Camp has been in continual communication with the family, and was in Boise until early Sunday morning.

“One of the most difficult situations I think that you could ever be in is when you lose a member of your family,” Camp said. “It is very difficult time for our coaches and our players. We will provide these fine young men with the mentoring and help they need to get through this very difficult situation.”

Davies said that the university and its community have been deeply affected by the loss.

“I have received many e-mails, phone calls and messages from members of the local community and beyond — university presidents, alumni, Foundation trustees and others — with offerings of support, prayers and asking what they can do to help,” Davies said. “The outpouring of support has been amazing.”

Steigers had joined the Mountaineer football program this spring after transferring from the University of Montana. He was working out with the team and building his eligibility to play on the team during the fall 2010 season. He graduated from Missoula Sentinel High School in 2006.

He is survived by his parents, Tom and Cindy of Missoula, a sister, Libby, his 2-year-old daughter, London, and partner, Liz Apostol.

 

Pentagon To Study Using Hyperbaric Chambers To Treat TBI

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Posted on 1st April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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The Defense Department is doing an 18-month-long study to determine if hyperbaric chambers, typically used to treat carbon monoxide poisoning, can also help those with mild Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/03/defense-dept-to-study-effect-of-hyperbaric-chamber-on-traumatic-brain-injury/1

News of the study was first reported by the Army Times, which said that 100,000 troops have been diagnosed with mild TBI. http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/03/army_TBI_033010w/

The new clinical trial will start in January next year. There have been studies that tried to gauge the impact that pressurized oxygen tanks have on those afflicted with TBI, but none definitely found out whether if hyperbaric oxygen reduces or ends TBI symptoms like headaches and memory loss.

That will be the goal of the new test, which will be done by the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury in Virginia; and the Army Research and Materiel Command in Maryland.

There will be about 300 participants in the study, mainly Marines and soldiers.

The sites participating in the study are Fort Carson, Colo.; Camp Pendleton, Calif.; Camp Lejune, N.C.; Brooks City-Base, Texas; and perhaps Fort Hood, Texas.

Participants receiving the experimental treatment will breathe 100 percent oxygen while in the chamber at 1.5 atmospheres of pressure, according to the Army Times. It’s believed that the pressure from the chamber will cause oxygen in the blood to dissolve, so that more oxygen will flow in the body and heal injured tissue.

The control group will feel as if there were 1.3 atmospheres of pressure in the chamber, but they will be breathing normal air.

The hyperbaric chambers hold three to 16 participants, with each participant required to stay in the chamber for an hour a day, five days a week, for 40 sessions.

The test participants must have sustained a TBI four to six months ago.

Not to be skeptical, but the chances of this study leading to a new cure is very unlikely. First, the mechanism of carbon monoxide damage and traumatic injury are dramatically different. In carbon monoxide poisoning, the brain tissue is deprived of oxygen and the hyperbaric administration of oxygen can make up for this, done acutely. In mild traumatic brain injury, the mechanism of injury is the tearing and smashing of brain tissue. Almost no MTBI involves an anoxic/hypoxic brain injury, where the brain damage is caused by not enough oxygen.

Lastly, even if there is some curative value of super saturating with oxygen in the hours and days after an injury, to administer hyperbaric oxygen 4 to 6 months post, is absurd. Oxygen isn’t some magical curative substance that will fix something long broken. It is a necessarily element for real time brain function. Take it away and the brain dies. But flood a damaged brain with it six months after the fact and at best, you will do no harm. Adding oxygen to the brain 6 months after an injury makes as much sense as putting in twice the oil capacity of an engine, after it has already been blown.

The cost of this study could be used on far better projects. A comprehensive change in the protocol of testing for amnesia would do far more at less cost. If the Pentagon has money they want to throw at TBI research, then improve the MRI scanning that is done. Buy 3 Tesla scanners for all VA/Defense medical facilities. Implement DTI and SWI imaging techniques. Collate all that they learn from such studies. Even the implementation of something like the ImPact test would do far more than this study.

Snowboarders Start To Wise Up To Repercussions of Concussions

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Posted on 20th March 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Even after the Winter Olympics, discussion of the topic of snow boarding and concussions is far from dead. The New York Times offered its take on the subject in its sports section Friday, in a story headlined “As Snowboarders Soar, So Does Concern.” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/sports/19snowboard.html

The gist of the story is that even snowboarders, known for their counter culture dismissal of danger, are starting to worry about the long-term impact of the head injuries they sustain.

For example, snowboarder Scotty Lago suffered a concussion in 2008 in New Zealand, when he hit the halfpipe while attempting a Can 1080, which involves making three spins. Helmet-less Lago fell 20 feet and hit his head.

Now Lago, who won a Bronze medal last month in the Olympics, during an interview with The Times cited studies that show it can be years before the true impact of concussions appears.

The issue has also come to the forefront because of the tragedy that befell snowboarder Kevin Pearce, 22, who sustained a serious head injury Dec. 31 in Utah and is trying to recover in a neurological rehabilitation facility.

Particularly troubling in The Times’ piece is the story of 20-year-old snowboarder Elena Hight, who competed in the Olympics last month. She suffered three concussions when she was 14, and one a year since then, according to The Times. That doesn’t make for a very upbeat prognosis for her later years.

Both Lago and Hight will be competing in the U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships in the coming week in Stratton, Vt. And if one can believe this foolishness, that competition only requires helmets for those 13 and younger. Even the Winter X Games now require helmets.

But sadly enough, even helmets don’t guarantee safety. Pearce was wearing a helmet when he had his devastating accident. And during the Winter X Games last year, Gretchen Bleiler hit the back of her helmet and got concussion.

The problem with snowboarding isn’t just the absence of helmets, but that the sport is inherently dangerous. One mistake and the brain will be subjected to extreme forces, not just from a blow to the head, but also from the extreme acceleration deceleration forces of the “stopping” part of the fall. True prevention would make the courses safer, put limits on how dangerous of stunts are allowed. Without that happening, there will be many more tragic stories ahead.

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