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you know one of the things that first made me realize that no one has their handle
on this issue was the fact that we have never
really appreciated how many concussions actually happen
when medical professionals talked about this five or ten years ago
they would confidently say that only five or ten percent of athletes got
concussions each year and they were using data that was taken from athletic trainers
i knew and they were luckily some other doctors who new as well that
athletic trainers don't hear about every concussion symptoms that an athlete
experiences and so by asking the athletes themselves we found that the
concussion rate is not five or ten percent it's more like fifty or seventy percent
in contact sports like football soccer hockey
every season so half the kids out there are getting a concussion every season
the only reason they haven't we haven't heard about that is 'cause the athletes
have never known to say anything
we used to think it was 'cause athletes actually wanted to hide the injury when
someone actually did the study and asked the athletes they found out no it wasn't that
this was a choice this was that they didn't think a headache was worth
talking about or the fact that they saw stars for a few minutes
and so uh... that was kind of step one if you want to solve this problem you've
got to tell the athletes what's happening
you know you get a hard hit
and your head doesn't feel right it's diagnosed as a concussion now uh when we
were younger i believe that you know you had your bell rung and take a couple deep
breaths and relax and and you're right back at it
you know i was diagnosed with probably
two as a player
uh... you know mild ones but i'm sure i had
a few more than that
not the ones where you get knocked out unconscious but that's
you know we're learning now more about concussions and it's more than just a
the high end ones so i i probably had
you know a handful
i think that it's
become okay to say you don't feel well
there's just so much more or or
there's more knowledge on the concussions where at the time you just sort
of your head hurt and you squirt some water on your face and you just went out there and
kinda gutted through it i guess
i think all the leagues from from the lower leagues right up to the n_h_l_ have
been more proactive and i think that now
you when kids
when you can see a kid get hit on the ice I think they're a doing a better job right
away of of
taking the kid and finding out what
you know how they feel one report investigated the frequency of unreported
concussions and estimated more accurately
the rate of concussions in high school football players
this report showed that the most common reasons for concussions not being
reported included a player not thinking the injury was serious enough to warrant
medical attention
sixty six point four percent of unreported injuries
motivation
not to be withheld from competition forty one percent and lack of awareness of
probable concussion thirty six point one percent
this excerpt is brought to you by the massachusetts school of law