Recently there have been some news articles about the deaths of high school football players, especially in the past month. One was titled: “Is Football Safe for Kids? At least seven kids have died while playing football so far this year.” Another read: “Recent deaths of young football players rekindle questions about safety of game.
Eight school children died from injuries in the last month.” It felt at least medically appropriate to review the process and results of concussions. A simple definition of concussion from a CDC article is “a type of traumatic brain injury caused by a bump, blow or jolt to the head or by a hit to the body that causes the head to move rapidly back and forth.
” That translates into your brain gets banged around inside your skull on the hard, jagged bone. From the American Association of Neurological Surgeons’ article, “A concussion is an injury to the brain that results in a temporary loss of normal brain function, including alteration of mental status or level of consciousness that results from mechanical force or trauma.” But not always.
The diagnosis is made by questioning and observation after the trauma, be it from a fall, contact sports injury as in football, car accident or bomb blasts as in a war zone. It does not have to include loss of consciousness, which, until recently, has been part of the concept for eons. The main concussion symptoms reported include headache or pressure in the head, nausea and/or vomiting, balance .