As Bethesda parent Jerry Schwartz walked out of Walt Whitman High School after Thursday night’s medical discussion of concussions, he said:
“I wish I had heard a lot of that before Sam had his concussion.”
Sam is Schwartz’s son. A Whitman junior, he suffered a concussion about four months ago while playing soccer with a high-level recreational team. A soccer ball smacked him in the side of the head at close range.
Sam ended up going to a hospital emergency room where he had an MRI and was diagnosed with a concussion. He was told to stay home and rest for two days before heading back to school and the soccer pitch.
But when Sam went back to class, he was not ok, Schwartz said. He could only last a few hours before heading to the nurse’s office because he didn’t feel well.
“He was tired, he couldn’t concentrate. He had a headache, he was definitely in a daze,” Schwartz said of his son.
Schwartz now knows that those are the classic symptoms of a concussion and that it can take weeks for them to disappear.
In fact, it took about five weeks before Sam felt “normal” again and comfortable playing soccer. At school, he was able to gradually make it longer through the day and increase the amount of work that he could do.
The reality of experiences like Sam’s—including the inaccurate medical advice from the ER doctor—is what led to the discussion at the Bethesda high school.
A couple of hundred parents and students turned out for the session organized by Whitman parent Michael Singer, president and CEO of Brainscope Co. in Bethesda, and Principal Alan Goodwin, who has been concerned about the number of concussions suffered by student-athletes.
In ice hockey alone, 25 percent of the 40 or so players suffered concussions this year; two players, who were hurt in January and February, still aren’t back to normal, according to Whitman parent and panelist David Milzman, who’s a professor of emergency medicine at Georgetown University and medical director of the Medstar DC Sports Concussion Center.
“They’re still not able to return to school and this is following all the right rules,” he said.
Dr. Andrew Tucker, head team physician for the Baltimore Ravens, noted that despite efforts to educate coaches, athletes and parents about the signs of concussion, “under-reporting is still a problem…because athletes want to play.”
And the nature of the traumatic brain injury only adds to the difficulty of determining whether an athlete has suffered one. There’s still much uncertainty in the medical community over what really happens to a brain that is concussed, the experts said.
“The symptoms can be oh-so-subtle. That’s what makes it so hard for us to diagnose,” Tucker said. “Sometimes it’s just as vague as ‘I don’t feel right.’ ”
A study of concussion’s effects on school work involving 80 students found that most suffered from headaches, inability to pay attention, and difficulty with studying and completing homework, according to Dr. Gerard Gioia, director of neuropsychology and the Safe Concussion Outcome, Recovery & Education Program at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Proper treatment as early as possible can minimize complications, but it’s difficult to predict how long recovery will take, Tucker said. That’s because the brains of kids, which are still developing, heal more slowly than those of college students and adults.
Milzman recommends that student-athletes undergo baseline cognitive testing before they play. The computerized test, which is often offered by booster clubs at some Montgomery County public high schools, provides a picture of a student’s regular brain function. Taking the test again after a concussion can show whether a student’s cognitive abilities are impaired.
But Milzman pointed out that the test is “not a vaccine."
“A lot of parents say, ‘Oh, my kid is protected because he was tested.’ It is a tool. It is not a panacea,” he said.
The best prescription for recovering from a concussion is rest. And that means no physical activity, no school and no videogames or computer use—nothing that will tax the brain as it heals. Medical and psychological evaluations are “critical” post concussion to determine how a student is doing, said Dr. Dan Hanley, professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Most importantly, students should “never” return to playing a sport if they still have any symptoms because they could risk further injury, Gioia said.
“Your brain is your future and you don’t screw around with that future,” he said.
