York Hockey Club Board Member Chimes in on 'Concussion' Movie

Submitted by AMITA Health.

Concussion concerns among parents whose children play contact sports are rising to new levels because of the movie, “Concussion,” an AMITA Health pediatric neurologist says.

Hossam AbdelSalam, M.D., Medical Director of the Center for Pediatric Brain at AMITA Health Alexian Brothers Women & Children’s Hospital, Hoffman Estates, reports that the center’s Pediatric Concussion Clinic has handled cases recently in which parents, after seeing the movie, have brought children to the clinic even though they had recovered from a sports-related concussion months earlier.

“They were not treated by us initially, and now, their parents are seeking some answers from a more specialized center to make sure they were treated appropriately,” AbdelSalam says.

The movie spotlights the untimely deaths of several former National Football League (NFL) players later found to have suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a debilitating disorder associated with repeated head collisions. CTE can be surely diagnosed only after death.

Even before “Concussion” started showing in theaters Dec. 25, AbdelSalam had noticed concussion awareness growing among parents, coaches, athletic trainers and youth sports organizers. AbdelSalam says he used to encounter parents “very much into” their children’s sports lives who would refuse to accept a recommendation that a child take time off from a sport or stop playing it entirely after suffering a concussion. “It has been at least a year since I have seen that,” he says. “People are taking it more seriously.”

Tim Cassidy, a member of the board of the York Hockey Club, a program affiliated with York Community High School in Elmhurst, has seen a similar shift in parental attitudes toward concussions. In the past, he says, some hockey parents “would rather not acknowledge” that their child might have suffered a concussion and would encourage the child to “sleep it off” and return to the ice too quickly.

“That culture is changing,” says Cassidy, a paramedic and former youth hockey coach whose sons, a 15 year old and a 12 year old, play hockey.

As concussion awareness has grown, so has the caseload at the Pediatric Concussion Clinic, one of the first of its kind in the Chicago area when it opened in 2010. The clinic now handles four to five times more cases than it did during its first year, AbdelSalam says.

While most concussion clinics are run by sports medicine specialists, the AMITA Health clinic differentiates itself with neurological expertise. The clinic offers a one-day, comprehensive evaluation for concussion. Patients first visit with a neuropsychologist to undergo a battery of memory, attention and cognition tests. AbdelSalam then discusses symptoms and performs a neurological exam. The clinic produces a full report within 24 hours and offers a variety of treatment options, including medication, counseling, balance therapy and physical therapy.

The clinic regularly provides concussion-management training for youth sports coaches and athletic trainers at the request of their organizations. The clinic also provides concussion education for parents, teachers, school nurses and primary-care physicians.

The information provided at the training and educational sessions simplifies the process for dealing with concussions and possible concussions among youth athletes, says Cassidy, who has attended two concussion presentations by the clinic’s healthcare professionals during the last two years.

The clinic’s educational efforts, coupled with media coverage of CTE cases involving NFL and National Hockey League players, have increased concussion awareness among local parents, coaches and youth sports organizers, Cassidy says. So have state laws requiring concussion-management policies in youth athletics. Since 2009, all 50 states have passed such laws.

Last August, Illinois enacted a law expanding and extending to elementary and middle schools concussion-management measures already required for high schools. Under the new law, student-athletes who have suffered a concussion must receive permission from a doctor or an athletic trainer before they can return to school or resume playing sports. All schools also must have a plan for handling concussions.

The state law and growing concussion awareness in general have led to lengthier game-day injury lists among high school hockey clubs as coaches – and parents – increasingly take a cautious approach to head injuries, Cassidy says. “I’ll look at the injury information (for an opposing team), and they’ll be down four or five players,” he says. That doesn’t necessarily mean concussions are on the rise, but it does indicate “people now know what to do, and they’re not returning children to play,” he says.

At the same time, league rules have been updated to require officials to impose automatic “high-consequence penalties” for any hits to the head or back, Cassidy says. “The idea is that it takes the judgment out of it for the officials and mandates it,” he says. “From the league to legislators to the media, everyone is coming together to keep the game fun but to make it a lot safer.”

Cassidy’s older son, Shane, a sophomore goalie on the York Hockey Club’s junior varsity team, suffered a concussion during a game last November, and his coaches “were over-the-top supportive,” even though Shane’s recovery took more than three weeks, Cassidy says. “There was no pressure on him to get back,” he says. “They said they would rather he missed a month than a year and a year than a career.”

Shane received treatment at the Pediatric Concussion Clinic, and his father was impressed with the care delivered by AbdelSalam and the clinic’s staff. Cassidy also liked their calm and reasonable approach to treatment. They recognize the benefits of youth sports and strive to help patients recover fully so they can play again, he says. At the same time, he adds, the clinic educates parents about concussion risks, including the danger of returning to a sport too quickly.

“They will tell you when you’re doing more harm than good,” Cassidy says. “But they temper that with reasonable recommendations up to that point.”

AbdelSalam advises recovered concussion patients to strengthen their neck and shoulders to avoid another concussion. Concussions occur when the skull – and the brain – rotate or wiggle quickly, “and the stronger the neck and shoulders, the less likely the head will wiggle” in a collision, he says.

Now that adults have tuned in to concussion risks, the next challenge is to convince young athletes to speak up when they’re not feeling right after a head collision, AbdelSalam says. Too many, he adds, still hide or ignore concussion symptoms.

“Don’t hide the symptoms,” he says. “If you feel something’s wrong, talk about it. The more you hide it, the more problems happen. The sooner we address it, the better.”

Cassidy has a similar message for fellow youth sports parents. “Don’t ignore a potential head injury,” he says. “If there’s an incident, and your child’s behavior has changed, even if it’s just a headache, you can’t ignore it. It’s all you need to know to go and get them checked.”

Yet Cassidy also believes in the importance of balancing injury concerns with awareness of the benefits of sports. Shane’s concussion was his second, and the risks of allowing him to continue playing hockey are “always on my mind,” Cassidy says. “But we have seen huge benefits for both of our kids from participating on teams.”

Young athletes learn important life, work and social skills, including how to work together as a team toward a common goal, despite individual differences, Cassidy says. They also realize health benefits from conditioning themselves to play a sport. Plus, he notes, his sons enjoy playing hockey, “and that’s the primary motivation.”

“I don’t know if they ever will be high-level hockey players,” he says. “But what they’re learning is developing them in a healthy way. I’m not denying there are risks, but in our family’s opinion, we have balanced it out.”

To learn more about the AMITA Health Center for Pediatric Brain please call 888-365-5240.