Concussions are classified as a serious type of traumatic brain injury. Concussions happen all the time, but most of the time to children. A concussion happens when a person has a serious blow or impact to the head. It takes a lot of force to hit the head for a person to sustain a concussion. I decided to watch the TEDtalk "Protecting the Brain Against Concussion" by Kim Gorgens. I think she did an outstanding job presenting information on this subject. I decided to watch this TEDtalk because I have always been curious about the effects concussions have on children who play sports. Both my brothers and my fiancé have played football and sustained a concussion from the sport. It is a very serious and scary situation to be in. Depending on the level of severity of the concussion, the person can be a little light headed and have a headache or they can be completely disoriented and nauseous. My younger brother didn't get completely disoriented, but he got nauseous and had a headache for a week. Thankfully, the coaching staff contacted my parents right away and they were able to take him to the hospital to get an MRI to see if there was any permeant damage. We were relieved when the scans came back and there was no damage. We were worried because this was his second concussion. He had one before when he was little at his daycare. They were riding kids around on four-wheelers and they ran over a bump and he fell off and hit his head on the ground. Kim Gorgens stated in her talk that once you first sustain a head injury, the chances of getting a second injury is higher and it keeps getting higher the more times you injure your head. She also said that high school athletes are three times more likely to have serious injuries to the head and it usually takes them longer to be symptom free. The second time my brother had a concussion, he was a senior in high school and it happened during practice after school one day. Since his headache lasted for a full week, they required him to sit out that week plus a full week after the last day his head hurt. I am thankful that there are rules and guidelines in place like that to protect these children. I feel like there should be some rule put in place that makes the schools record how many times a child sustains a concussion and that after three times they shouldn't be allowed to play the sport anymore. Having multiple traumatic brain injuries can have a negative affect to the brain in the long run. Kim Gorgens talked about a research study that was conducted on retired NFL players. It was actually the wives of the players who wanted the study done. They were all concerned because their husbands were young and seemed very forgetful all the time. This research study showed that NFL players who have had three or more traumatic brain injuries to the head or concussions had a higher chance of getting demented diseases at a young age. Kim stated that there are three things people must to do to try and prevent concussions. They need to study and be educated on the subject, they need to do something about it, and they need to make sure there is protection in place. I loved those three steps that she talked about. There needs to be more guideline put into action to protect these children and athletes from sustaining so many brain injuries. It should be a top priority to protect the minds of our youth. If everyone cared a little more about the affects concussions had, I strongly believe would could come up with a solution to lower the statistic of people who sustain brain injuries. I strongly recommend parents, teachers, coaches, athletic departments, and even athletes to watch this TEDtalk and educate themselves on how to protect the brain. Kim Gorgens did a fantastic job of explaining how you can start to protect the brain from injury.
Gorgens, K. (May 2010). Protecting the brain against concussion [Video]. TED Conferences.
https://www.ted.com/talks/kim_gorgens_protecting_the_brain_against_concussion#t-541603
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