Mason Parents Get Lesson in Concussion Awareness

Henderson Beam’s head hit the mat at least twice hard enough to leave him with a serious concussion during a wrestling match in January.

The 14-year-old freshman missed three weeks of school and struggled with headaches, sensitivity to light and fatigue. Wednesday night during a presentation at the high school, Beam talked to a room of parents and fellow students about how his life has changed.

“It’s OK to joke about it,” said Beam, who has had friends kid around with him since he returned back to classes. “You don’t want them to have a concussion, but you want them to know what you’re going through.”

Dozens of parents attended The Anatomy of an Adolescent Concussion: It's Not Child's Play presentation delivered by Vicki Galliher, Mason’s athletic trainer.

Since Sept. 21, 2011, concussions have been documented among the students at the school, Galliher said. Three of those happened during snowboarding accidents, another from horseplay in the halls of the school and the rest from athletic competition. In July, Virginia made it mandatory for parents of high school students and student athletes to take a to learn the symptoms of a concussion. Common symptoms of concussions include, but aren’t limited to headaches, sensitivity to light and sound, confusion, loss of consciousness and a dazed appearance, according to sportsconcussions.org.

Watching her son suffer from symptoms from his concussion has been one of the hardest things for Samantha Beam. She would go into Henderson's room to wake him up without knowing if he had gotten any sleep the night before. His red swollen eyes were proof enough that he didn’t.

“You never know from day to day,” she said to the room. “It’s hard. It’s truly hard.”

According to Kidshealth.org, during head trauma the brain can move around inside the skull and bang against it, possibly leading to bruising of the brain, tearing of blood vessels and injury to the nerves. According to the same article, that’s how concussions are caused.

With more than 29 years of experience in the field of sports medicine, Galliher said adolescents could display concussion symptoms up to a month after the injury. She said Mason uses the IMPACT baseline results when dealing with concussions amongst athletes. IMPACT testing is done by each athlete at the school prior to being allowed to compete in sports. If the student athlete is concussed, the baseline results help identify the severity of the head injury. Galliher said head injuries don’t have a timeline to heal and some can take longer than others.

She said it’s important to pull the student athlete from sports, school and any other activity that would put the adolescent in danger of causing further damage to them. She said the school administration and staff have worked closely with her when it comes to the care of a concussed athlete.

“With a concussion in an adolescent, the slightest activity can set off a more serious one,” she said.

In an article in The News & Observer, two experts in the field of concussion studies took two different stances on adolescents in athletics. Dr. Robert Cantu of Boston University doesn’t think athletes under 14 should play tackle football, ice hockey and lacrosse unless rules are altered to reduce the danger of concussions and the impact of repeated hits to the head. Dr. Kevin Guskiewicz of the University of North Carolina looks at it differently. He thinks it is important for young athletes to learn how to safely handle contact at an early age and develop those skills against competition that are the same size and age.

Galliher, who has been at Mason the last nine years, said concussion research has improved over the years and legislation has helped push that research along.

“We know more about them now,” Galliher said. “I can’t say they’re more prevalent now, we’re just doing a better job at documenting them.”