Repeated Brain Concussion Can Lead To Disability

Repeated Brain Concussion Can Lead To Disability.
After taking a undeniable hit to the director during a football game, an Indiana spaced out school student suffered severe headaches for the next three days. Following a apex CT scan that was normal, his falsify told him to wait to go back on the field until he felt better. But the attendant returned to practice, where he suffered a devastating capacity injury called second impact syndrome neosize plus. More than six years later, Cody Lehe, now 23, is mostly wheelchair-bound and struggles with diminished perceptual capacity.

Yet he's favourable to be alive: Second collide with syndrome is fatal in about 85 percent of cases. "It's a lone syndrome of brain injury that appears in pongy school and younger athletes when they have a mild concussion, and then have a another head impact before they're over the symptoms of their first impact. This leads to vast brain swelling almost immediately," said Dr Michael Turner, a neurosurgeon at Goodman Campbell Brain and Spine at the Indiana University School of Medicine, and co-author of a immature account on Cody's case, published Jan. 1 in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics.

The carton boning up illustrates why it's so leading to prevent a second impact and give a young brain the occasion to rest and recover, another expert said. "Second impact syndrome is a very excellent phenomenon. It's estimated to occur about five times a year in the country," said Kenneth Podell, a neuropsychologist and co-director of the Methodist Concussion Center in Houston.

So "What makes this contemplate unique: They're the before all ones to truly have a CT examination after the first hit. What they were able to show is that the first CT pore over was read as normal," said Podell, who also is a team counsellor for the Houston Texans, of the NFL. "After the first concussion there was no attestation of any significant injury.

And then following the second one is when they ran into all of the problems". During the Friday vespers game, Cody told a teammate the first hit was the hardest he had ever entranced and his head hurt and he felt dazed. But he downplayed symptoms to his parents, coaches and trainer. "I reflect he was weighty them what he was telling us," his mother, Becky, said. "In those days, to have a concussion, if you weren't vomiting or shy to go to beauty sleep or have blurred vision or all that kind of stuff, then you didn't have a concussion. He didn't have any of those symptoms; other than the headache, the total else was OK.

And he told them, 'I just insufficiency to go home and lie down and I'll be all right". The irregular headaches, however, were bad enough that he finally asked to ascertain a doctor. "The doctor did say, 'Your read over is fine, but anytime you have a headache like that you probably shouldn't play,'" Becky recalled. "It was the oldest week of sectionals, and we won the beginning round. Cody was the captain, so he said, 'I'm not prevailing to stay on the sidelines. I've had headaches adore this before. And if the scan says I'm fine, I'm playing.'"

The reinforcement injury occurred during Tuesday afternoon practice. "The subscribe to hit, which was very, very minor; we're even averse to call it a 'hit' because it was a really light practice, and they weren't even in detailed pads. It was just kind of shoulder brushing and he was down". Turner said, "After his help impact, he says, 'I in effect feel bad,' and went to the side and said, 'I can't the feeling my legs,' and collapsed. That quote is incredibly community in most of the case reports of this".

During Cody's hospitalization, he had complications including kidney failure, sepsis and pneumonia. It was 98 days before he came home. Today Cody has a great pick up of humor but struggles in other ways. "His celebration is terrible. His long-term is still there - if he met you once, he remembers you - but the short-term is genuinely mischievous and it's unusually hard to build on things when you can't about what you did 10 to 15 minutes ago".

Cody has worked his progress up to six minutes on a treadmill, and can stand up and walk, but he needs someone by his surface because his balance is poor. From this case other parents "can settle away that this concussion stuff is serious - it's not malingering. This is why we have impression testing and - all that fiddle-faddle about keeping athletes out - because of the fear of this i found it. In July 2012, an Indiana theorem went into effect mandating that turned on school student athletes suspected of having a concussion or boss injury be removed from play and not return until they have been evaluated by a health grief provider and given written clearance.