AUGUST 5 , 2018 | SportsUnion 15
I did a presentation on concussions and how it is kind of a blind injury , because you don ’ t see a cut . You don ’ t have a crutch or a wheelchair . People look at you and they assume you are ok .”
year . Four to five million concussions occur annually , with rising numbers among middle school athletes , and 90 percent of the most diagnosed concussions do not involve a loss of consciousness .
Andrew Jensen
If you stop and see Andrew Jensen he is your average kid . He goes to school like everyone else and hangs out with friends . If you look deeper in the Jensen you will see that he has been battling with concussions for almost his entire adult life .
Jensen was your average kid growing up getting into as many sports as possible . There wasn ’ t a sport he didn ’ t like and he would make sure he got his hands dirty whenever possible . Like most kids he played hard and didn ’ t really understand what he was doing to his body .
He was a kid after all . Kids don ’ t get hurt , so we were told . If you did get hurt you would just rub a little dirt on it and
AUGUST 5 , 2018 | SportsUnion 15
Before is was just put some ice on it and go back outside . Now it ’ s let ’ s lets check for the symptoms .
Concussion History
Jensen knows a few things about concussions . After all , the young man has had a lot in her early lifetime . The count stands at seven and that was before his 18 birthday . He had most of his concussions by the time he entered high school , which is astonishing to think about .
Children are generally resilient , and plasticity – the ability for the brain to reorganize itself and form new connections – is generally at its strongest in childhood , so most children recover from concussion without medical intervention . While some rest ( both physical and mental ) is encouraged , recent studies demonstrate that complete inactivity is not recommended .
Research does show that children can take longer to recover from a concussion than adults
I did a presentation on concussions and how it is kind of a blind injury , because you don ’ t see a cut . You don ’ t have a crutch or a wheelchair . People look at you and they assume you are ok .”
get back in the game . You never wanted your friends to see get hurt and not pay anymore . Being ridiculed by your friends is worse than not playing at all .
Playing with nicks and knocks is a badge of courage among friends . The more bruises you have the harder you played . It was a right of passage . Now-a-days it ’ s a little different . Parents understand a little more the long lasting effects of getting hurt - so when Jensen comes home saying his head doesn ’ t feel right then something needs to be done . suffering comparable impacts . Children who sustain one concussion are also at higher risk for a second concussion from an injury sustained soon after the first one .
As with adults , a child can sustain a second concussion from a lesser impact than is generally required to produce one – that is to say , a relatively small bump to the head can cause a concussion in a child or adolescent who has sustained a recent earlier concussion . Children who have suffered a concussion
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