Head Concussion Case Study

Words: 1377
Pages: 6

Trey Johnson, a 3A high school football player from Kersey, CO, received a crushing hit during the first quarter of a game in the 2011-2012 season. He came off the field for almost the rest of the first half, but was granted permission to return to the field right before the first half ended. During the short time before halftime, he received another dizzying hit. The first half ended and the teams went to their respective locker room. After Trey’s coaches spoke, the players stood up to go out on the field again. Trey stood up and immediately lost conscientiousness. He spent the next week unresponsive. When he finally regained consciousness, he retained all long-term memory including defensive hand signals used to call plays, but could not …show more content…
A head concussion injury occurs when a person’s brain collides with the interior of the skull causing broken blood vessels, damaged nerves, and/or bruising. There is a controversy among the athletic community as to whether or not high school football should be participated in due to the number of concussions. In high school football, an average of fewer than three boys per year have died due to on-field injuries in the last ten years (Landau). Annually, around 1,100,000 high school students play football in the United States (Mueller). Precautions being taken in the NFL should be implemented in high school programs, but high school football should continue to be played, despite the current number of concussion injuries that …show more content…
This side has two groups of people. Some people think high school football needs no changes; others want high school football to continue to be played but improvements be made. These improvements are involved with construction of the helmets, rule implementation, and penalization. These people are coaches, athletic directors, previous athletes, and spectators. These people have usually not had a negative experience with high school football. Although these stakeholders want to see football continue, they are still concerned for the young men’s’ safety. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon and CNN's foremost medical correspondent says, "In a football game, when someone takes a hard hit, the helmet does a pretty good job of protecting the skull from getting a skull fracture” (Landau). He goes on to say that although the helmet protects against fractures, the concussion protection needs to