Concussions and School

Parents In Action

Dustin Fink1 Comment

Gil and Michelle Trenum of Prince William County, Virginia have taken what was the most horrible day in their life and are doing something about it.  After Michelle so genuinely shared her story about her son, Austin — here exclusively with The Concussion Blog — her and her husband refused to believe something could not be done about it.  The Trenum’s have put forth a tremendous effort in connecting with some very “stout” individuals in the concussion research and management area.  It was not to find out why this happened so much, as it has been an effort to not let this happen again, to any parent or any kid.

Joe Conroy of InsideNova.com reported on a recent school board meeting, where Gil Trenum is a board representative, at this meeting was Dr. Gereld Gioia, cheif of the Division of Pediatric Neurosugery at Children’s Medical Center in Washington D.C.;

“A lot of people are asking ‘Why now? What’s so special about these times?’” said Gioia, who was invited by Brentsville District School BoardrepresentativeGil Trenum. “We have a perfect storm coming together in the sense that we better understand the brain, we have the resources at our disposal now that we can be informed about this injury, concussions, which are really a type of mild traumatic brain injury.

“There aren’t more concussions than years ago, but we have more knowledge about them and their symptoms,” Gioia said.

In the article is the issue that I have been trying to make more and more of, removal from school and cognitive activities.  However, this time it is Dr. Gioia explaining Continue reading →

Concussion Effects More Widely Known

Dustin FinkLeave a comment

Every Tuesday and Wednesday, for the five hours total for which a school district gets reimbursed by the state, a Southmoreland High School math teacher brings books, coursework and specialized instruction to the Mount Pleasant home of Gaige Pavlocak, 15.

Gaige, despite recent improvements in his symptoms, health and outlook, has been academically exiled to his home for more than six weeks because of the post-concussion effects still lingering from a helmet-to-helmet collision on the third day of high-school football camp.

That was Aug. 18, 101 days ago.

Chuck Finder of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette opens up his article today about concussions on the youth. Pennsylvania is a good place to read about concussions and school-aged kids, as it is where the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is, the home of Dr. Micky Collins and the ImPACT program. The northeast in general has been much quicker to adapt and adopt (Washington state not included) changes necessary to the well-being of adolescents across the board.

One such novel idea and program is BrainSTEPS (Strategies Teaching Educators, Parents and Students), a homebound educational system provided by the state, for those suffering from traumatic brain injuries. Although the program was initially set forth for severe (coma-like) injuries to the brain, a majority of assistance is given to those that have been concussed.

We have students who have never lost a second of consciousness who are doing far worse in school than students who were in a coma for a day or two, those considered severely, traumatically brain injured,” Mrs. Eagan Brown said.

A very good article that I encourage everyone to read, especially those involved in teaching our youth. Resistance is not needed in this area however, we see that on a daily basis.

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