November 24, 2009
Head Injuries Annually Jonathan Baer
Concussions in Modern America Inside this issue: Head Trauma in the NFL
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Crunching the Numbers
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Concussions in Non-Contact Sports
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Issues can be found
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In our modern America, roughly 1.4 million people suffer a concussion—or similar brain injury—every year. This is a statistic taken on a wide variety of people, from children to adults. Of these 1.4 million, the vast majority of people, about 1.1 million, will survive the encounter, and continue to live almost as if it had never happened. But what about the other three million? Unfortunately, these are the people who are not so lucky. Most of these 3 million will also survive the encounter, but will have what is called a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), which is a category for serious head injuries. Unfortunately, a small percentage of these will die from their encounter with a concussion. A Concussion is defined as when the brain bumps
against the wall that is your skull, and thus causes bruises and tears. Your skull is filled with a special fluid, called spinal fluid. This fluid acts as a cushion for your brain, but if you hit your head hard enough, there is nothing the spinal fluid can do. The problem with concussions is that people will consistently try to continue whatever they were doing before, be it playing sports or going to work, as if it had never happened. This can often lead to a TBI or at least make the injury much more difficult to treat than it would have been if you had laid off. Symptoms of a concussion can be easily recognized— they include nausea, vomiting, confusion, slurring of words, dizziness, black outs, and double vision. It is scientific fact that the key to curing a concussion is rest, and for more seri-
ous injury such as TBI, proper medical treatment. If you or anyone you know has a concussion, make sure that the right thing is done.
created. Unfortunately, many concussions in a contact sport like Footbaall are “played down,” or made to seem much less bad than they are in reality. Obviously, the problem with this “strategy” Is that it can lead to a TBI, or in the long run do much more dam-
age than would have happened if the player would have taken their time on the bench.
This image shows a young lady who has a concussion. Her whole face is swollen badly as a result of an impact.
Concussions from Sports As can be imagined, Football has a very high rate of head injuries like concussions, in all levels of the game. Because Football is so high contact, there are players bumping heads everywhere on the field at once, and thus a high risk of concussions is