Jessica George
With football season well underway, hockey season now in action, and only a couple of months until the ski and snowboard seasons are ready to go, hospitals are gearing up to meet the influx of concussion patients.
Dr. Lorena Jenks said winter is the busiest season for concussions with people slipping on ice, falling down stairs, and more getting into sports that tend to see more injuries.
She noted snowboarding is the most common sport to yield a concussion but locally, given the high volume of kids who play hockey, it seems more concussions occur on the ice here.
In truth, concussions are pretty easy to get and Dr. Jenks estimated that everyone in their lifetime probably will suffer one—though usually just a mild one.
It doesn’t even take falling down to get one, she added. Even hitting your body off another person’s with enough force could be enough to cause a concussion.
However, crashing head-first into someone while making a tackle, being knocked into the boards during a battle for the puck, or banging your head off a rail while trying some cool new trick on the ski hill are feats that very well may land you in a little more trouble in the brain injury department.
There are studies correlating heavy hits in football, hockey, soccer, and extreme sports to the development of brain damage, depression, an inability to control impulses, and other dangerous behaviour in later years.
Dr. Jenks and Brain Injury Services of Northern Ontario (BISNO) both assured it would take repeated injury over a long period of time to see those kind of results. But just the same, there are precautions that must be taken with even minor concussions in minor-league hockey.
The best indicators of what to do next is always found in the first 15 minutes, noted Dr. Jenks.
“Basically, they can’t have had any loss of consciousness and they should be symptom-free, absolutely perfect, before they go back to play,” she stressed.
“Generally, if they’ve had a concussion with loss of consciousness . . . even if it is only one or two seconds . . . or having symptoms lasting more than 15 minutes, they can’t return to the game until they are a-symptomatic for at least a week.”
The difference is between a simple, first-degree concussion and a more complex, second-degree injury.
With a first-degree injury, the player should be fine to return under the “return to game play rules” during the same game. But with a second-degree one, it may be a bit of a longer stretch of sitting on the bench.
All of that being said, BISNO recommends that if you have three or more concussions within one year, whether or not they are simple or complex, it is very important that the injured player remain out of game play for at least the rest of the season.
BISNO reported that “while suffering from a concussion, you can suffer from cognitive and physical symptoms, as well as behavioural changes such as loss of attention or concentration, loss of memory and/or orientation, having poor decision-making, problem-solving, and new learning skills, headaches, fatigue, dizziness, uneven gait, nausea, blurred vision, seizures, changes in sleep and eating patterns, depression, anxiety, irritability, impulsivity, and/or reduced initiative.
Dr. Jenks warned upon receiving two or more concussions, one could suffer from the serious condition called Second Impact Syndrome, which may result in death. Sometimes, though rarely, a serious concussion may warrant a CT scan. With that they are looking for any blood on the brain or swelling.
With repeated concussions, other scenarios may crop up in increased risk of epilepsy, vertigo, cumulative neuropsychological impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, and even Parkinson’s disease.
“The thing is, technically one [concussion] could affect you for the rest of your life, but it probably wouldn’t,” said Dr. Jenks. “You would most likely get better.
“It may take several months, and it often surprises people how long they have to wait,” she added, but again insisted that people shouldn’t overly worry about little bumps to the head.
Ways to decrease the risk of a concussion are to wear helmets, be sensible about the type of play and strength of hits, and to wear mouth guards while playing sports as they help absorb the shock that normally would go to your brain when your jaw smacks shut.
As well, it’s very important that you listen to your doctor when they suggest how long you should sit out.
Michael Shoemaker, 21, used to be very involved in hockey and snowboarding. He received his first concussion when he was 13 while out of town at a hockey tournament.
He had gone in to make a hit and his body connected with his opponent’s body just right. Both were propelled away from each other and sent sprawling onto the ice.
Shoemaker ended up suffering from a complex concussion, and had to go to the hospital for a check-up as he lost consciousness briefly.
The doctor prescribed that he sit out for two weeks.
“I wanted to go back, though,” Shoemaker explained. “Anyone would.”
He said the last thing you want is to have to sit out during a major tournament. But he also admitted that deep down, he knew he probably shouldn’t get back out on the ice and opted to follow the doctor’s advice.
He continued to suffer headaches for about a month, but after that felt back in perfect condition and was glad he had listened and not rushed back to the ice.
Shoemaker then got another concussion the next year while he was trying a trick on his snowboard.
“I was riding and I hit a rail, and I was doing a board-slide and the board just slipped out forward and I fell backwards, and I hit the back of my head of the rail,” he recalled.
He remembered everything, had remained conscious, and was not seriously confused, though he had split his head open which required fourth stitches.
After that injury, while it was not prescribed that he not return to the hill, he chose to sit out anyway, not wanting to aggravate the brain injury.
But even though he suffered from two concussions so close together, Shoemaker is not too worried.
“I’m not too worried about getting another one,” he remarked. “They are a big deal, but you can’t be one of those people who are in a bubble.
“You just gotta get out there and do what you want to do,” he stressed.
But Dr. Jenks suggested that when engaging in a sports activity that may leave you prone to a concussion, you should be smart about it and try to minimize the risk to injuring your brain as much as you can.
