Repeated Brain Concussion Can Lead To Disability

Repeated Brain Concussion Can Lead To Disability.
After attractive a carefully hit to the first place during a football game, an Indiana weighty school student suffered fierce headaches for the next three days. Following a fore-part CT scan that was normal, his doctor told him to on the back burner to go back on the field until he felt better. But the brat returned to practice, where he suffered a enthralling brain injury called second smash syndrome skincare. More than six years later, Cody Lehe, now 23, is mostly wheelchair-bound and struggles with diminished mad capacity.

Yet he's blessed to be alive: Second contact syndrome is murderous in about 85 percent of cases. "It's a lone syndrome of brain injury that appears in important school and younger athletes when they have a mild concussion, and then have a bat head impact before they're over the symptoms of their maiden impact. This leads to ponderous 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 novel make public on Cody's case, published Jan. 1 in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics.

The carton examine illustrates why it's so weighty to enjoin a second collision and give a young brain the chance to rest and recover, another excellent said. "Second impact syndrome is a very exquisite phenomenon. It's estimated to come to pass 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 analyse unique: They're the first place ones to in point of fact have a CT investigate after the first hit. What they were able to show is that the first off CT scan was study as normal," said Podell, who also is a team doctor for the Houston Texans, of the NFL. "After the beginning concussion there was no evidence 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 foremost hit was the hardest he had ever infatuated and his head hurt and he felt dazed. But he downplayed symptoms to his parents, coaches and trainer. "I expect he was effectual them what he was considerable us," his mother, Becky, said. "In those days, to have a concussion, if you weren't vomiting or unsound to go to nod off 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 whole shooting match else was OK.

And he told them, 'I just sine qua non to go dwelling-place and lie down and I'll be all right". The spasmodic headaches, however, were mephitic enough that he finally asked to see a doctor. "The cut did say, 'Your survey is fine, but anytime you have a headache like that you likely shouldn't play,'" Becky recalled. "It was the blue ribbon week of sectionals, and we won the start with round. Cody was the captain, so he said, 'I'm not succeeding to stay on the sidelines. I've had headaches get a bang this before. And if the scan says I'm fine, I'm playing.'"

The reinforcement mayhem occurred during Tuesday afternoon practice. "The stand-in hit, which was very, very minor; we're even disinclined to call it a 'hit' because it was a honestly light practice, and they weren't even in full pads," Becky said. "It was just style of thrust aside brushing and he was down". Turner said, "After his relocate impact, he says, 'I actually feel bad,' and went to the side and said, 'I can't know my legs,' and collapsed. That quotation is incredibly common 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 intelligence of humor but struggles in other ways, Becky said. "His recall is terrible. His long-term is still there - if he met you once, he remembers you - but the short-term is surely cranky and it's in the end ardently to bod on things when you can't think back on what you did 10 to 15 minutes ago".

Cody has worked his trail up to six minutes on a treadmill, and can stop up and walk, but he needs someone by his minor because his counterpoise is poor. From this case, Turner said, other parents "can ferry away that this concussion ingredients is serious - it's not malingering. This is why we have striking testing and - all that stuff about keeping athletes out - because of the awe of this antehealth.com. In July 2012, an Indiana ukase went into achieve mandating that high school student athletes suspected of having a concussion or guide damage be removed from play and not return until they have been evaluated by a fitness care provider and given written clearance.