concussion profile

Concussions

With her experience with playing sports and sports injuries, West Side Story intern Zoe Smith shares her personal story with concussions and their effects.

You are playing a normal soccer game. You feel the grass beneath your cleats and the sweat dripping down off your head. The screams of your teammates and coaches and the sight of the crowd excite you as you play the game. Or maybe you are in gym class participating in a normal game of badminton. Or maybe you are at volleyball practice in the gym participating a no contact drill. But then you get hit. The feeling of getting hit extremely hard in the head is one of the most out of body experiences I have had. After getting struck by a ball, a racket, or your teammates hand, you fall to the ground. Laying there helplessly you don't really think many thoughts until you regain some energy and realize, I might have a concussion According to Connecticut Children's hospital, "It's extremely dangerous for a young athlete to continue playing with a concussion, even if it's mild. If they don't recover properly, they could experience longterm issues with focus, attention and coordination –and in the short-term, be at higher risk for a second, serious injury." I would know. I have had many experiences with concussions in my lifetime, totaling up to about 4. It doesn't just happen in a soccer game. I have gotten one at volleyball practice, one at recess, and two at soccer. According to a study done by CNN, girls soccer has the second highest sports-related concussion rate next to football. I had a concussion at soccer practice in November of 2020 that ruined me. I collided with a teammate and hit a concrete wall at our indoor complex for my soccer club. Not only did I go down and blackout for a few seconds, but the only person that saw it happen, my CNN teammate and myself just laughed it off because we thought it was funny. I stood right back up and kept practicing. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t speak properly or hear, it was just a hit on the head that had happened many times before. But after my mom saw me walking around lethargically for a couple days, she took me to the doctor. I was concussed severely and could not go to school for ten days and couldn’t play sports for three weeks. This didn’t just include the omission of soccer but I couldn’t try out for club volleyball due to missing the week all the clubs had tryouts. Owen Smith ‘21 is currently in a similar situation. He was hit on the head during a soccer game and was diagnosed with a concussion and a broken nose. Not only does he have to get nose surgery but he couldn’t participate in the last state qualifying game. When he came off the field to be rushed to the ER he didn’t remember anything that had happened that day. He looked like he was going to throw up as blood poured down his sickly pale bruised face. “I’ve learned that head injuries are annoying because you think you might be fine and you’re not,” said Smith. He hopes to be back to participate in State soccer later this week. Concussions are extremely serious and most people still don’t know their long term effects. It’s extremely scary wondering why you can’t remember anything you ate that day and why you get headaches in the exact spot you were hit everyday. Could that be a long term effect or could it just be me? A collision could happen at any time. It's important to get help and take care of yourself immediately.