TCB Mailbag

May Mailbag

Dustin Fink5 Comments

As the sports season winds down at the high school I am finally getting to the various emails I have received. I do truly enjoy the many stories and questions I get here, often times they are very learned for me; which translates to more information for you the reader.

I picked out one such email and gained permission to reprint it here. The sole purpose of this email is to get feedback about the return to learn aspect of concussions. Tom would like you to give it a read and make comments below.

———-

Return To Learn in the High School

I am an athletic trainer in a high school in the north suburbs of Chicago. We have a concussion program in place and see about 80 concussion a year in our athletics. I am fortunate to have some control over the return to learn side of concussions in my school. I have found that this is essential in order to properly manage a concussion. I find when physicians only see an athlete once and set accommodations for a determined amount of time, it does a disservice. The same is true if the time between physician evaluations is too long, especially when kids are kept out of school for long periods of time. I find many concussion students don’t need to be out of school, and those that do usually have their symptoms decrease significantly within 1-3 days.  Many times concussions progress rapidly and Continue reading →

TCB Mail Bag

Dustin Fink1 Comment

I trust everyone has had a wonderful Christmas experience (or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or going to have a good Boxing Day), with that I would like to wish everyone continued successes in whatever endeavor they choose.  Over the Holiday I have received many an email regarding concussions; apparently the down time has given people opportunity to share frustrations or good news.

Today I am bringing you a specific case in which we all can learn from.  At the least we can read this and prepare for similar situations that may arise – whether as a parent, doctor, coach or athletic trainer.  

As always you can write in and with your permission I will re-post anything you would like (and it may suit the audience).  It can be attributed to you or anonymously.  Keep it between 500-2000 words and omit any personal identifying factors if it involves patient care or sensitive information.

Here is our post today – by Anonymous:

==========

Obviously today is Christmas Eve and in most regions of the country kids are not in school for at least the next two weeks. Maybe less, maybe more. All in all it is a great time to rest up that brain and recharge your body. As athletic trainers we also know that sports do not stop for the holidays. For the most part at least. If you remember last year I read an op-ed article that you put on your blog titled “Parental Decisions Can Undercut Good Concussion Laws” or something of that nature. Well, it’s happened again (as it has many times between that time and now but this one is a little more ridiculous than the last) and I’m nauseous!

To be as brief as I can on this without boring you this is the case of a female soccer player who sustained a nasal fracture as well as a concussion when fighting for a header in the air with an opposing player almost a month ago. To be clear, she actually suffered a deviated septum. Anyway, after our AT did a beautiful job of getting this athlete “entered” into our concussion protocol (which Mom still couldn’t get over the fact that she indeed had a concussion; whoda’ thunk it, right?) we all sat in our physician’s office (Mom, AT, myself, physician, athlete) and witnessed the concussion as well as the nasal issue being addressed. The athlete was clearly concussed (clinical exam, balance assessment, and symptom reporting were all abnormal but ImPACT scores remained at baseline) and the athlete was sent for an MRI and referred to an ENT for further evaluation of the nasal issue. Pretty simple. These folks were given the “red carpet” treatment as all of our athletes/parents are and everyone left happy. The consensus was to see the ENT and address that issue then to follow back up with our physician for the resumption of the concussion issue. The athlete ended up having surgery about a week later. She was out for about a week after that. The ENT cleared her to resume play and actually said that there was no concussion. Wow! OK!

Fast forward to last week during exams and the athlete did not follow-up with the AT during exams like she was instructed to do. She THEN shows up to a game on Saturday with a face shield and tries to plead her case to enter the game. The AT did her job and did not allow the athlete to play. Mom was irate. Athlete conceded. Coach was with the AT. So athlete did not go through the GRTP process and as of today the mother refuses to follow-up with our physician for final clearance after all of the objective information is noted. She is choosing to Continue reading →

Questions from readers…

Dustin Fink5 Comments

It is that time to take questions/comments from readers and answer/comment on them to the best of my ability.  Remember that any information given should be conferred with your doctor.  This information does not take place of actually seeing your doctor.  Don’t be dumb see your doc and use this information to ask further questions.  Without further ado…

From: Hockey Guy, Subject: Stop scaring people

just wanted you to know that what you write about concussions is scaring people into not playing, enough information already, we don’t even have all the information.  i played for 17 years and i am fine.

That is awesome Hockey Guy, the fact that some of my information is actually sinking in makes me smile.  Good luck to you in the future.

==========

From: Concussed, Subject: Letter from reader Continue reading →

Lend Assistance Down Under

Dustin FinkLeave a comment

I was contacted by a group, Brain Injury Australia, Australia’s peak brain injury advocacy body representing, through its Member organizations in each of Australia’s States and Territories, the needs of people with a brain injury, their families and careers.  More specifically Nick Rushworth the Executive Officer; he was seeking information from this side of the Pacific about concussions.  Brain Injury Australia is attempting to get as much information as possible to create a policy paper on sport-related concussions for the government.  As Nick put in a later email;

The Australian Government is expecting Brain Injury Australia to be able to evidence that it has consulted widely in regards to the policy paper’s contents, so anything you can do to distribute my email as far and as wide as you can I would really appreciate.

So I am asking for all of your (athletic trainers, doctors, researchers, parents, coaches, et al) help on this one.  You can either answer the below questions in the comment section or you can email your responses to me and I will pass them along to Nick, his deadline is the 27th.  Here are the questions he has posed (please only answer not critique the question); Continue reading →