Concussion

[seafoid]

This is scary

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/02/11/the-collision-sport-on-trial/

"Iron Mike" Webster was a Hall of Fame center who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers, won four Super Bowl rings, and died in 2002 at age fifty. By then he was a broken man who lived in a pickup truck, estranged from his family, shocking himself with a Taser and attaching his teeth with superglue. It was his brain tissue that Dr. Bennet Omalu—the main character in Concussion—examined at the Allegheny County Coroner's Office in Pittsburgh, leading to the discovery of CTE.

Chris Borland was an inside linebacker who played one brilliant season for the San Francisco 49ers, then retired in March 2015 at age twenty-four after studying the potential long-term effects the game might have on his brain. "I want to be seventy-five and healthy if possible," he told Rebecca Carpenter in her documentary. One magazine labeled him "the most dangerous man in football."

No scene in the dramatization Concussion can match the agony of watching John Hilton, who played tight end in the NFL from 1964 to 1974, lose his train of thought, his eyes watering, a look of sheer desperation washing over him, as he tries to explain his mental condition; or the pain on the face of the wife of Mike Pyle, a center for the 1963 champion Chicago Bears, as she tells Carpenter, "One day you wake up and think, I don't have a husband anymore. He's sitting next to me, but..." The current estimates are that nearly 30 percent of all NFL players will suffer some form of dementia over the next sixty-five years. Most players, unlike Borland, will still say it is worth the risk. But David Hovda, the head of UCLA's Brain Injury Research Center, explained to Carpenter, "Brain injury does not happen to one person. It happens to an entire family."

Rebecca Carpenter had spent years trying to understand her father, Lew, who grew up near the cotton fields of the Arkansas Delta, started as a running back at the University of Arkansas, and became a football lifer, ten years as a player, a coach for thirty-one more. On the field, Rebecca said, "he was beautiful, and I mean really, really beautiful," but at home his anger and withdrawal had cast a shadow over her childhood and later became so pronounced that his wife, after a long and loving marriage, felt no choice but to leave him.

When he died at age seventy-eight in 2010, his family received an inquiry from Ann McKee, the neuropathologist in Boston. She had read Carpenter's obituary, saw that he ostensibly had never suffered a concussion during his career, and asked whether his brain could be examined as a control in the CTE studies. The family agreed, and months later Rebecca was in Boston looking through a microscope at the brown strands of tau protein that had riddled her father's diseased brain tissue. McKee said to her, "On a scale of one to four, four being the worst, your father was a four."

Since it cannot be diagnosed in living players, CTE is not a fully understood disease. Its symptoms appear to vary widely from severe dementia to depression to bursts of anger. But Lew Carpenter's brain reinforced what leading neuroscientists now believe—that it is not severe concussions so much as the repetitive subconcussive blows that football players endure over a career that are more often the cause, the toll of thousands of collisions and jarring movements that shake the brain inside the skull. This calls into question whether the NFL's concussion protocols and changes in rules can fix things

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrWDOZmhqmg

[Minder]

And the NFL denied that CTE existed for years

[tyssam5]

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/soccer-player-diagnosed-cte-brings-sports-risks/story?id=22697477

[seafoid]

Jeff Astle died from concussion related injuries
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhydSUnnn9Q

[Asal Mor]

By then he was a broken man who lived in a pickup truck, estranged from his family, shocking himself with a Taser and attaching his teeth with superglue.

That's hardcore. The story of Derek Boogarde "the boogeyman", an ice hockey enforcer was scary and fascinating too. Dead of a drug and alcohol overdose at the of 28. Became addicted to copious amounts of painkillers as the effects of thousands of fist fights took effect on his body and brain.

[magpie seanie]

When I watch rugby matches I seriously worry about the future wellbeing of those guys.

[seafoid]

When I watch rugby matches I seriously worry about the future wellbeing of those guys.

Me too. And it's not worth 100K

[Declan]

Interesting interview here on off the ball with the doctor who discovered CTE. Scary stuff and it also shows how every organisation circles the wagons when threatened. Hard to argue with his recommendations re children and their sporting activities.

http://offtheball.newstalk.com/player/news/972.973/10720

[seafoid]

IT

The agenda behind Eddie Jones's comments about Johnny Sexton's parents being worried for their son's welfare was painfully obvious. Subtlety is clearly not a priority if this is the height of rugby 'mind games.' But they had a resonance. Digs only really work if they do.
Sexton accused Jones of jumping on the bandwagon in regard to head injuries which has been a hot topic in not just rugby for some time now. Sexton's agenda is obvious too. He would rather not be the public face of concussion, especially, as he pointed out, since when he's been forced out of action it has been mostly due to other stuff.
It's the accumulation of various injuries in recent years that has rugby fans wincing on the Irish out-half's behalf whenever he doesn't immediately bounce back to his feet after a 'hit.' The concern is both an expression of his value to the Irish team as well as admiration at his courage. And it's not just Sexton.
An undertow of players needing to be saved from themselves has coursed through this debate which has professional rugby players embraced by the 'something must be done' brigade who as per usual are as vague about the precise 'something' as they are vehement it has to be done. And it's rubbish.
What's legitimate is rugby putting in place, and being seen to put in place, all the necessary protocols and medical checks to cope with head injuries once they occur, because they will happen. Sexton has ticked every required box and is free to do whatever he wants. And what he wants is to continue playing professional rugby.
Clive James once pointed out how "the injuries acquired from pursuing free activities are small cause for pity." It perfectly sums up how when so many unfortunates suffer injuries from activities they have no choice over at all that the consequences of grown-up sportspeople choosing to put their bodies on the line needs to be put in proper context.
Sexton is big enough and old enough to decide for himself what he wants to do within the rules. Yes, there's a competitive culture which says no player wants to come off the pitch - or field of battle depending on your fondness for bellicose imagery - although it's possible sometimes to wonder if at least some of that is machismo. But ultimately it is players' choice.
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Second Captains
This idea of saving professional rugby players from themselves is facile.
That isn't indulging in posturing foolery about society being 'namby-pambyed,' or health-and-safety gelding us of our competitive instincts. It is a reminder of how ultimately nobody is being forced at gunpoint to play rugby or anything else which carries a risk of serious injury.
So Jones drilling for the nerve actually wasn't half as interesting as the vehement response, which basically boiled down to it being dirty pool to bring someone's family into it.
There's a weird subconscious schoolyard feel to that, all 'don't talk about me Ma,' an assumption that family considerations are somehow irrelevant to this big-boy game, when in fact for rugby as a whole they are likely to increasingly prove very relevant indeed.
Since Jones was plainly just looking to unsettle one of Ireland's best players, and Sexton pointed out how it is on his family that the impact of inaccurate commentary and speculation is most felt, the Irishman is entitled to feel sore in his own specific small-picture case.
But I think the Australian's comments unwittingly, and maybe even subliminally, touched on what's going to become a major big-picture issue for rugby as a whole. Because compared to most sports, rugby in particular isn't immune to what Ma thinks.
Sexton is 30 years of age, a parent himself, brought up in the rugby culture, and well able to make his own mind up. But every parent knows worry automatically comes with the job and rugby's long-term challenge could increasingly be in convincing parents the game isn't one worry too far when it comes to their kids.
Many parents who, theoretically at least, still control the extent of a youngster's choice, and are not immersed in the rugby culture, must look at the modern game and shudder at the potential physical cost to their nearest and most expensive should they choose to play it.
Yes the weekend action in Twickenham was thrilling but it was brutal too. Admiration at the commitment mixed uneasily with wincing at massed ranks of gymmed-up behemoths repeatedly smacking into each other. Incident wise, it may have been more attractive than the muscle-bound skittling which normally characterises the Six Nations but the physical toll was still colossal.
That Conor Murray's kick to the head was this time the most notable incident in terms of player welfare, and meant the game was commonly regarded as being thankfully free of serious injury, says plenty about what kind of walking wounded benchmark there is in professional rugby.
So one match without a player having to be helped from the pitch won't alter how the game continues to revolve around fearsomely powerful teams colliding off each other with no handy 'something' on the horizon that's going to change that.
It's not like any counter-intuitive physical regression is on the cards: rugby is nothing without its famous physicality so inevitably it's going to get even more physical. That's why I reckon Jones's comments resonated, just not in the way he intended.
The England coach was getting in a dig for a specific reason to unsettle a specific player. In the wider context though it will resonate because how many parents look at the modern professional game and wonder if it's something for a talented kid to aspire to?

[AZOffaly]

Was talking to a lad last night at a hurling wall session we were running. His 11 year old is in hospital since Sunday with concussion picked up playing rugby. As I said before, I picked up concussions playing Gaelic Football and Soccer, but in 2 of the instances it was due to hitting the ground with my noggin. Rugby has an issue and it has to deal with it. The physical collision is so integral to the game, that unless they do something along the lines of what Dinny was saying earlier, it's going to end up having change imposed upon it somewhere in the world via law.

[seafoid]

o   http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11264856

My battle with concussion
By Steve Deane

Shontayne Hape played international league for the Kiwis and international rugby for England - until repeated head injuries ended his career and threatened his future health.

Growing up playing league in New Zealand, everyone got knocked out at some point. Everyone got concussed. I can't think of a single guy I played with who didn't. You just got up and played on. We were told to be Warriors. It's the nature of the sport. Harden up. That was the mentality. I was brought up with that.
I reckon I'd have been concussed 20 times by the time my professional league career with the Warriors, Bradford and the Kiwis ended with a switch to English rugby. That was nothing compared to what was to come.
After playing for England at the rugby union world cup in 2011 I joined London Irish for the 2011/12 season.
Halfway into the season against Gloucester I copped a knee to the head and was knocked out. I told the club's medical staff I'd copped a head knock, but didn't admit the full extent of it, that I'd blacked out. The next week against Harlequins I copped another knock. It was a pure accident. Our lock Nick Kennedy kneed me in the temple and it put me straight to sleep. Concussion on concussion. That was the big one for me, the worst I've ever felt.

The following day I was to undertake some head questionnaire tests relating to how I was feeling and my symptoms, and the results were shocking - some of the worst they'd ever seen. They stood me down for eight weeks, which was the protocol.
I've always loved music. DJ-ing is my hobby and I have my own turntables and gear at home. But the effects of the concussion meant I couldn't bear to listen to music. The sound was too much. Sunlight was a problem too. I had to stay in a blacked-out room for days. I'd bike to training and by the time I'd get there my head would be throbbing and I'd have to go home to rest. My tolerance for my three young kids was zero. I was always angry around them, couldn't even last a minute without getting cross and losing my cool.

My relationship with my wife Liana suffered. She was left to manage the three children and household on her own, while I tried to get my head right.
By the time my stand-down was over there was only three or four games left in the season, so there was no point in coming back. That meant I'd had a four-month break by the time I arrived in the south of France to play for Montpellier in the French Top 14 competition.

WHEN I came down here everything was cool. I felt fresh and had been cleared to play. I felt like my concussion problems were behind me. I was actually more worried about the state of my knees.
In England it is a standard procedure for all players to perform a computerised pre-season head test. There are a few different versions of the test used around the world, but they are all basically the same thing. They take about 10 minutes sitting at a computer. The test establishes a baseline score that you'll have to match later in the season if you cop a head knock. The problem with the test is that players can manipulate it by under-performing so that later if you have a head knock and you have to beat it you normally can. In my league days the boys all beat the test and everyone kept on playing.

In the back of your mind you are aware of the dangers, but you are paid to get out there and play and you want to play. You never think anything bad is going to happen to you. So you just do it.
Some clubs don't even bother with the computerised test. You evaluate yourself through a questionnaire. When I got knocked out the first time at Montpellier I just said 'oh nah I'm fine'. They ask if you were dizzy, feeling fatigued, in a daze, headaches, etc, on a scale of 0-10. If your total score was too high you'd be stood down.

That first French concussion came in my fifth game, against Toulon. I clashed heads with someone in a ruck. I felt terrible, but decided to bite the bullet. When you come to a new club and you are an international player you are supposed to impress. I was on the biggest contract of my career, so there was a load of pressure to deliver. You don't want to let anybody down. You have to be out there playing.
I played the next week and got knocked out again. A prop was running past me and accidently kneed me in the head as I off-loaded a ball. It was just slight tap but it got me in the wrong place. This time I was really worried. They rested me for a week. That's the French rest. Normally you'd have two-four weeks of doing nothing. In France it was 'okay we'll rest you for a week and you'll be fine'.
There was constant pressure from the coaches. Most coaches don't care about what happens later on in your life. It is about the here and now. Everyone wants success. They just think 'if we pay you this you are going to do this'.
Players are just pieces of meat. When the meat gets too old and past its use-by date, the club just buys some more. You get meat that's bruised or damaged, the club goes and buys some more.
I sat out for a week but I wasn't right. I was back to having constant migraines. I was pretty much in a daze. Things had got so bad I couldn't even remember my PIN number. My card got swallowed up twice. My memory was shot.
Dosing up on smelling salts, Panadol, high caffeine sports drinks and any medical drugs like that to try and stop the dizziness, fatigue and migraines was the only way I could get through trainings and matches.
I went through the next four or five months like that. Pretty much a zombie.
LOOKING BACK I could have prevented a lot of the pain I caused myself by telling the doctors much earlier how I really felt. But I wasn't thinking straight. You are under constant pressure from all angles - coaches, team mates, fans - and you don't want to let them down. I also wanted to play on to achieve my bonuses, especially when you know your career is coming to an end.
Somehow I got through 11 games but by then I was falling apart. I would try not to get involved in rucks because I was terrified of getting knocked out again. My performances were terrible and eventually I was dropped. It was the first time I'd ever been happy about it. I was just happy I was going to give my head a rest.
I had three weeks of no games and I thought that would sort me out. But heading into my comeback match I was knocked out at training. It wasn't even a head clash. One of the boys just ran a decoy line and bumped into me and I was knocked out. When you are getting knocked out and no one is even touching your head you realise things have got pretty bad.
But I still didn't tell anyone. I played the match and got knocked out in the first tackle. I tackled a guy and I was out. Asleep.
I'd been telling the docs on the field that it was my shoulder, I had a stinger, or I was just a little dazed. But after the game I knew I had to do something. I phoned my mum and my agent. They said I had to put my health first. At a team meeting our coach Fabien Galthie, a former French halfback, grilled me for lying in the ruck and giving a penalty away. I didn't want to admit that I was lying there was because I had been knocked out. It was humiliating. Galthie was blowing me up in front of my team mates and I just held my tongue.
Afterwards he came to me to talk about my performance. I was like "I'm over it, I have to come clean". I told him the reason I had given away the penalty and my performances had been below par was because I was knocked out and suffering from concussions. He couldn't believe it.
The club sent me to the Montpellier Hospital for scans. Sitting in a dark room with electrodes attached to my head looking a big blue screen, I felt like a patient in a psychiatric hospital.
I was told to count in my head while doctors monitored my brain function. I did tests for memory and vision. They show me seven or eight pictures of, say, a tree, couch, bird or a bike. When they turned the page and asked me what I'd just seen I could only remember one or two things. The specialist showed me on chart the average score for someone with a normal brain. My score was just above someone with learning difficulties.The specialist explained that my brain was so traumatised, had swollen so big that even just getting a tap to the body would knock me out.
He referred to me to another top specialist in Paris but he was very clear - I had to retire immediately.
Back at the club I broke down in tears telling Galthie.
Everyone dreams of going out on the right note, winning a final and going out with everything intact. I had been told I couldn't do what I'd been doing all my life. I was gutted. The club was shocked.
But even then they tried to overrule the medical advice. They said they'd rest me for a couple of months and see if I could recover.
I knew I was being told it was over but I'd heard of guys taking six-month sabbaticals and coming back. I got in touch with Michael Lipman, the former Bath captain, who had been forced to retire by multiple concussions. He said he'd experienced exactly the same stuff that was going on with me, and advised me to listen to the specialists and stop playing.

But you just think "this is my living, this is what I do". I'd had three reconstructions and barely any cartilage left, so I always thought I'd retire because of my knee. The docs tell you "we can fix that, we can get a new knee, we can fix that shoulder". But with your head, you only get one head.
I knew that, but I still couldn't accept it was over.
I was thinking I'd rest for a year and then make come back. That's why I never told anyone I was retired.
To go with the denial, I went into depression. I was lucky I had some great support around me, from my wife, family and the players association in England.
The RPA and my good mate Nigel Vagana and Paul Heptonstall of NRL Welfare & Education team are putting some great things in place to help players transition to the next stage of their lives, but it's still incredibly tough dealing with the fact you are washed up in your early 30s.
In January I finally accepted it was all over. I'd read about a young club player in Auckland who died after suffering a head knock in a game. My fourth child was on its way. I was 33. Was playing for one more year really worth risking my life?
I've suffered depression, constant migraines and memory loss. I can see now the improvements I've made. I've completed an online brain training course and have started studying for a BA (Hons) Degree in Leadership and Management.
TRYING TO learn again is a challenge. I can remember things that happened a long time ago but things that happened yesterday, names, numbers and stuff, I constantly forget.
Growing up I used to wonder what was wrong with my granddad when he couldn't remember things. I'm not a granddad, I'm in my 30s. I've got the concentration span of a little kid. My oldest son can sit at the table and do stuff for hours. When I do my university assignments I struggle. Half an hour and that's me.
I am in a much better place now that I'm not getting beaten up every week. But I do worry about Alzheimer's and dementia. The doctors can't tell me what is going to happen to me in 10 years time. Research has shown that's when it catches up with you.
I'm not telling my story because I want sympathy. I'm telling it because this is an issue people, particularly young players, need to know about. More people need to speak out about it, tell the truth if they are suffering. Most players won't, though, for fear of being thought of as soft or because of the financial pressures.
Rugby and league have come a long way in dealing with concussion but there is still a lot further to go.
Recently I watched a quarterfinal between Toulouse and Racing Metro. Florian Fritz got knocked out, blood pissing out everywhere. He was totally in Lala Land. He came off and a medic came out of the tunnel and told him to get back on. He did but he was in no [fit] state. I see stuff like that all the time. It's what I used to do.
Fans used to see that sort of thing and go "Wow, he's tough". We need to change that mentality.
Young players don't fully understand the risks of playing on with concussion. The most dangerous thing with concussion is that it's an injury you can't see. That makes it easy to ignore - something that happens far too often.

[seafoid]

Mark Chisholm, an Australian second row with Munster was concussed in March and is still suffering symptoms.

[seafoid]

Benjamin Robinson died playing a schools match in NI. His parents have issued proceedings against the IRFU and WRU in the Belfast High Court

Parents of rugby player Benjamin Robinson issue legal proceedings
Governing bodies including IRFU and World Rugby named in case in Belfast High Court
about 19 hours ago
Johnny Watterson, Gavin Cummiskey

Ben Robinson died as a result of second impact syndrome suffered in a match for Carrickfergus Grammar School in Januray 2011.

The parents of Benjamin Robinson, the Carrickfergus Grammar School rugby player who died as a result of head injuries sustained in a rugby match in January 2011, have issued legal proceedings in Belfast High Court against a number of rugby institutions and two individuals.
The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), Ulster Rugby, World Rugby, Carrickfergus Grammar School, the coach of the school team Neal Kennedy and the referee, David Brown, who officiated at the match have all been named in the writ. Proceedings in the matter are well advanced.
Benjamin (14) died in the Royal Victoria Hospital on January 31st 2011 as a result of head injuries sustained during this match. A statement to The Irish Times explains that legal proceedings have been taken "for negligence regarding concussive type injuries and the safety and management of the game and their failures in their duty of care owed to Benjamin."
It is the first case of its kind to be taken in Ireland concerning a death due to Second Impact Syndrome, where an injury already sustained causes swelling to the brain and the player receives another blow that causes further injury and in this instance the death of the teenager.
"At Benjamin's inquest, the Coroner determined that Benjamin's cause of death was Second Impact Syndrome due to head injuries he sustained during the rugby match," said the statement. "The Family's legal team have gathered further evidence to confirm that Benjamin's death was due to Second Impact Syndrome and was preventable."
The statement alleges that there were numerous opportunities for those in charge to notice that Benjamin had sustained several concussive type head injuries.

Gerry Thornley: Rugby should be alarmed as concussion issue hits crossroads
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The summons set out by the family solicitors, who are GR Ingram and Co, has gone out to six defendants. It contains the statement of claim, which outlines the allegations and the relief sought by the Robinson family.
ADVERTISEMENT

The full statement reads:
"Benjamin sustained a serious head injury at Carrickfergus Grammar School during a Medallion Shield rugby match on 29th January 2011.
During this match, there were numerous opportunities for those in charge to notice that Benjamin had sustained several concussive type head injuries.
It is the case of Benjamin's parents and family that Carrickfergus Grammar School, the Irish Rugby Football Union, the Ulster Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union and World Rugby were in charge of disseminating information with regard to the risks of concussion in rugby and therefore, the Coach of the schoolboy rugby team and the Referee should have been aware or should have had the means of being aware that concussion is dangerous and could result in death.
As a result of head injuries sustained during this rugby match, Benjamin died in the Royal Victoria Hospital on the 31st January 2011.
Karen Walton [Benjamin's mother] and Benjamin's family have issued Civil Proceedings in Belfast High Court against the School, the Coach, the Referee, the IRFU, the Ulster Branch of the IRFU and World Rugby for negligence regarding concussive type injuries and the safety and management of the game and their failures in their duty of care owed to Benjamin.
The Coach and the Referee were responsible for the safety of the players and those in control administratively: the School, the IRFU, the Ulster Branch of the IRFU and World Rugby, were responsible for ensuring that all parties were aware of the dangers of head injuries sustained playing rugby.
At Benjamin's inquest, the Coroner determined that Benjamin's cause of death was Second Impact Syndrome due to head injuries he sustained during the rugby match. The Family's legal team have gathered further evidence to confirm that Benjamin's death was due to Second Impact Syndrome and was preventable.
Proceedings are well advanced. A Writ of Summons has been served on 6 Defendants by GR Ingram & Co. Solicitors on behalf of the family. Our Solicitors and Counsel are in the process of drafting and issuing a Statement of Claim."

[seafoid]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/03/30/fa-finally-opens-study-link-football-dementia-victory-telegraph/

[AZOffaly]

Mark Chisholm, an Australian second row with Munster was concussed in March and is still suffering symptoms.

Coincidentally, this thread was resurrected today, when Chisholm is in line to make his first appearance in a year. He has missed the entire year due to that concussion. I'd be very worried about him going back playing if that concussion was so severe.