By Rachel Roubein Times Staff Writer | 0 comments
Dazed, Deryk Kern forced himself to stand. The Westminster High School quarterback reassured himself he was fine, that he could continue playing.
It was the first quarter of an important game — the regional championship against Sherwood High School. He had just been tackled and hit on the right side of his head.
“I remember looking up and it felt like déjà vu,” the senior student-athlete said. “It felt like a dream.”
Several plays later, Kern passed the ball into the end zone for a touchdown. Yet, the typical adrenaline rush of points on the scoreboard didn’t come. He felt dizzy, but he continued to play.
“I couldn’t let my team down because they fed off of how I did. I was the leader because I was the quarterback,” Kern said. “If I went out, they probably would have lost hope.”
But he led his team to a 62-28 win and a 2012 regional championship title. That night’s incident was not diagnosed as a concussion, though Kern -- who had experienced a concussion once beforehand -- said the hit’s aftermath initially felt similar.
More than 1 million athletes nationwide sustain a concussion each year, according to an American Academy of Neurology report released last month. An athlete who’s experienced this type of traumatic brain injury is at a greater risk of receiving another, and they’re particularly susceptible during the 10 days following the initial incident.
Though Kern did tell his athletic trainer about the dizziness after the hit in November, he waited until after the game ended and the win was secured. He felt better by then, and the school’s athletic trainer kept an eye on him. He didn’t have to sit out, Kern said.
This scenario isn’t uncommon, according to Dr. Alan Faden, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and an expert in brain trauma treatment.
“Students want to get back in the game,” he said, “and at the age of 16 or 17, they think they are basically immortal and that it doesn’t affect them. But certainly it can affect them for the rest of their lives.”
A powerful bump, blow or jolt to the body or the head can cause a concussion, which is categorized as a traumatic brain injury. It can change how one’s brain typically functions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Research on what exactly constitutes a concussion, how it should be measured and when an athlete is back to normal is limited, Faden said.
“I think the bottom line is head injury is a much, much larger problem than people imagine,” he said.
On average, 173,285 people 19 years old and younger are treated at emergency departments annually for traumatic brain injuries related to sports and other recreational activities. The CDC analyzed national data from 2001 to 2009 and released the report two years later.
For males 19 years and younger, football comprised about 20 percent of emergency department visits. Bicycling followed at nearly 17 percent and then playing on a playground at roughly 8 percent, according to the CDC’s report.
Playground activities made up the most emergency department visits for females in the same age range, coming at about 14 percent. Bicycling followed at 12 percent and then soccer at nearly 10 percent.
Carroll County recently began tracking the number of concussions high school athletes sustain per sport. And the data shows a general trend, according to Jim Rodriguez, Carroll County Public Schools supervisor of athletics.
“When you take a sport that’s a collision sport — not just a contact sport — but a collision sport you automatically increase the chances,” he said. “If you have a collision, the likelihood of injury, not just head injury, goes up.”
Over the past two football seasons, there have been a total of 103 concussions among athletes in Carroll County Public High Schools. The next highest was at least 40 concussions sustained from cheerleading, then girls soccer with at least 23, and then girls basketball with at least 14, according to Carroll County Public Schools data.
Yet, concussions don’t just affect the youth. They’re prevalent in college athletics, too.
Out of the University of Maryland, College Park’s sports teams, football players also sustain the most concussions. During the past five years, the football program has seen 44 concussions, according to university data sent to the Times.
Wrestlers experienced the second-most: 30 concussions during the past five years. Next came 19 by men’s lacrosse players and then 12 by women’s soccer players.
If rapid movement to the head has left an athlete out of sorts, the American Academy of Neurology recommends an athlete be removed from play. A licensed health care provider should be contacted.
If the person is unconscious, the academy recommends performing the ABCs — checking the person’s airway, breathing and circulation. Emergency personnel should be contacted.
“As a rule, I think that the response should be more conservative rather than less conservative,” Faden said. “That would be the take-home message.”
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