Recognizing Concussions

USA Today recently brought up the topic, “how do families with concussion concerns pick sports?” Although there is much talk in the news about youth football injuries, many other sports pose injury concerns for parents and athletes. According to Safe Kids Worldwide, soccer players have the same percentage of injuries that are concussions as football players. Soccer player Tori Bellucci told her concussion story earlier this year as part of the White House’s summit on concussions and youth sports. The summit shined a spotlight on the nation’s interest in finding new ways to identify, treat and prevent serious head injuries in youth athletes.

After a successful high school soccer career at Huntington High School, Bellucci was offered a full scholarship to play soccer at Towson, but the physical and emotional effects of multiple concussions made her realize the risks of continuing to competitively play the sport she loves. Tori elected not to play soccer in college after she suffered her fifth concussion.

“It changes the way you think and feel,” Bellucci, 18, said. “I was just like really sad, really kind of desperate type of feeling. I couldn’t do anything because of my head, so I would just be in my room with the shades drawn. I was like, ‘I don’t want to live like this anymore.’”

Unfortunately, the effects of initially unrecognized and repeated concussions meant Bellucci’s dream of playing soccer in college ended, but she continues to work hard to recover and remains active in sports by teaching young children how to play soccer. At the summit, President Obama referenced Bellucci’s experience as an example to other young athletes and parents about the commitment ahead of us to change perceptions and improve outcomes.

Safe Kids reports that every three minutes in the U.S., a child is seen in the emergency department for a concussion, yet 54 percent of athletes admit they have played injured. The CDC has great resources for parents and athletes for preventing, recognizing and treating sports injuries.

Signs of a concussion that coaches, athletic trainers and parents may notice:

·         Appears dazed or stunned

·         Is confused about assignment or position

·         Forgets an instruction

·         Is unsure of game, score, or opponent

·         Moves clumsily

·         Answers questions slowly

·         Loses consciousness (even briefly)

·         Shows mood, behavior, or personality changes

·         Can’t recall events prior to hit or fall

·         Can’t recall events after hit or fall

Symptoms that athletes may report:

·         Headache or “pressure” in head

·         Nausea or vomiting

·         Balance problems or dizziness

·         Double or blurry vision

·         Sensitivity to light

·         Sensitivity to noise

·         Feeling sluggish, hazy, foggy, or groggy

·         Concentration or memory problems

·         Confusion

·         Does not “feel right” or is “feeling down”

For an easy reference, visit the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma's easy concussion overview and click the graphic to download and print. For more information and stories from athletes, parents, coaches and athletic trainers, please visit:

• CDC's concussion reference
• CDC's Heads Up program for athletes
  
• CDC's concussion story from a basketball player
  
• A parent's story about concussion in youth athletes
  
• Matthew Gfeller Foundation
  
• Safe Kids' youth sports culture infographic
  
• Safe Kids' sports safety infographic
  
• Safe Kids' Ten Tips for Parents
• USA Today's story on concussions and youth athletes

Concussion Summit Results

As you saw in my post last week, my wife, Lisa, and I were invited to attend President Obama’s Healthy Kids & Safe Sports Concussion Summit at the White House on May 29. We were invited for several reasons and were able to bring together all of our passions, including our work with The Matthew Gfeller Foundation, UNC’s Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related TBI Research Center, and my role as executive director of the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma. At the end of my post are a few commitments these organizations have made in response to the President’s summit.

The power of the Presidential position brought a large team of people to the White House that are interested in positively impacting this invisible threat to our kids – medical professionals, sports advocates/players (football, soccer, hockey, etc.), parents and other family members, corporate supporters, the military, media and others.

The first speaker was Tori, a high school soccer star with an opportunity to attend college and continue playing her sport. Unfortunately, the effects of initially unrecognized and repeated concussions meant Tori’s dream of playing soccer in college is over, but she is working hard to recover and remains active in sports by teaching young children how to play soccer. She eloquently told her story and introduced the President, which allowed him to reference her experience as an example to other young athletes and parents about the commitment ahead of us to change perceptions and improve outcomes.

“We’ve got to have better research, better data, better safety equipment, better protocols,” said President Obama. “We’ve got to have every parent and coach and teacher recognize the signs of concussions. And we need more athletes to understand how important it is to do what we can to prevent injuries and to admit them when they do happen. We have to change a culture that says you suck it up. Identifying a concussion and being able to self-diagnose that this is something that I need to take care of doesn’t make you weak -- it means you’re strong.”

The President shared a very powerful and balanced message:  our kids want and need to play sports to be productive. The collective “we” at the summit need to invest all we can, including treasure, talent and time, to insure that they play safely. Sports and recreational TBI are the invisible epidemic that demands attention right now across the board. Did you know that 70 percent of the U.S. football-playing population is younger than 14? Many people are talking about the NFL, but kids make up the majority of players and they are vastly understudied. It’s vital that we research ways to improve outcomes. Until then, “when in doubt, sit it out,” and keep yourself informed.

The effort required is huge, but we must lead and move with coordinated speed. Thanks for helping us share this initiative. 

Stay inspired! Bob Gfeller

Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma

The Childress Institute funds research to improve the treatment for critically injured children in the U.S., including an ongoing study to measure head impacts that youth sustain while playing football. The published results from 2013 comprised 111 youth football players ages 6 to 18 – the largest ever conducted. Players received an MRI before and after the football season, and also wore helmets instrumented with sensors to measure head impacts during practice and games. We will continue this study to determine short- and long-term effects, and next steps.

UNC’s Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related TBI Research Center

We have developed an innovative behavior modification program aimed at reducing the risk of sports-related concussion in high school football athletes. This fall we will study the intervention by employing a two-pronged approach in several North Carolina High Schools: 1) quantitatively capture head impact biomechanics using accelerometer systems to identify at-risk player profiles, and 2) employ a clinician-coach-player mentorship approach to affect change in playing techniques to reduce risk of concussions.

The Matthew Gfeller Foundation

The Matthew Gfeller Foundation (MGF) was founded in 2009 after the death of our son who sustained a catastrophic TBI during his first high school varsity football game in August 2008.  Matthew’s injury was caused by a severe helmet to helmet hit and he never regained consciousness. The Matthew Gfeller Foundation’s mission is to help prevent, recognize, and treat youth sports head injuries. The MGF works to raise awareness and fund research and treatment centers through a variety of community based programs. The MGF supports the following organizations in furtherance of its mission: The Matthew Gfeller Sports Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center at UNC-Chapel Hill, The Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma at Wake Forest University, and the high school athletic trainers of Forsyth County, NC.

Gfeller Attends Concussion Summit at White House

My wife, Lisa, and I were invited to attend President Obama’s Healthy Kids & Safe Sports Concussion Summit at the White House today, May 29. We were invited for several reasons, including our passion, advocacy and commitment to making sports safer for all children. We lost our younger son, Matthew, after he sustained a traumatic brain injury during a high school football game in 2008.

We were honored to be included in the Concussion Summit and hope the President’s support will raise awareness about sports-related brain injuries and save the lives of injured children across the U.S. Critical injury to children is a deeply personal issue for us, and I recently made the difficult decision to leave the corporate world to become the executive director of the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma.

I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce myself and explain one of the Institute's projects as it relates to the President's Concussion Summit today. As you may know, the Childress Institute was founded in 2008 through the generosity of NASCAR team owner Richard Childress and his wife Judy. The Institute helps fund research and medical education to improve the treatment for critically injured children in the U.S., including an ongoing study to measure head impacts in youth football. Recently published results from that study found that in high school players a single season of football can produce brain MRI changes in the absence of a diagnosed concussion. The researchers demonstrated that these impact-related changes in the brain have a strong association with a post-season change in cognitive function.

More than 70 percent of the football players in the United States are under age 14, so more research is needed to study the effect of repeated blows to the head in young players. Many great organizations are working to prevent injuries, yet not all accidents can be prevented and traumatic injuries continue to account for more childhood deaths than all other causes combined.  

The Childress Institute hopes further results will allow equipment designers, researchers, and clinicians to prevent, mitigate, identify and treat injuries to help make football a safer activity for millions of children. Discoveries made from research like the one referenced above will help save the lives of injured children, and we are proud to be a part of this process.

Matthew’s legacy lives on in many ways and you can view more of our story here. On and off the football field, Matthew was frequently heard saying “I won’t let you down.” By honoring Matthew’s memory, we hope we are keeping his promise.

- Robert J. “Bob” Gfeller, Jr., executive director of the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma