Writing Feature Articles - Step 1 - Lesson 1 | Page 59
Writing Feature Articles - Lesson
Writing Feature Articles - Handout . a
Experienced
Name: ________________________________________ Date: ___________________
. a: Feature Articles Packet
(page
of
)
“Special report: The dangers...” continued
As Zipp is discovering, he is one of the lucky ones.
“A doctor told me that with one more big hit, they wouldn’t have even needed to call the helicopter,” Zipp says.
David Bosse, Kirkland
Stan Bosse has watched the ?lm time and again. He still cannot pinpoint the hit that killed his son.
“There is no NFL highlight hit,” he says. “It doesn’t take much of a hit.”
Not when a child is playing with a concussion.
In his ?rst game of the 1995 season — his ninth-grade year at Rose Hill Junior High — David Bosse ran for more
than 250 yards. He scored three times and started at middle linebacker.
But he complained of headaches the next week, and his parents — both in health care — told him he wouldn’t play
again until his headaches receded. Before the next game, he said they were gone.
“Was it a concussion?” Stan Bosse says. “In
retrospect? Yes.”
Six plays into his next game, David Bosse
collapsed. Stan Bosse rushed to his side, and
immediately, he could tell the injury was lifethreatening. Within half an hour, David was
being treated at Harborview.
But not even immediate, by-the-book care
could prevent what was happening to David
Bo sse’s brain.
He was suffering from a rare condition —
almost unheard of in adults — called secondimpact syndrome. Because David had not
fully recovered from his ?rst concussion, it
took only minor impact to cause his brain to
swell uncontrollably. Almost every secondimpact syndrome victim is at least severely
disabled. Often, they die.
In David Bosse’s case, his parents were told
he would not survive the night. They held him
until the moment he was pronounced dead
the next morning. He was 14 ½.
“We’ll never be the same,” Stan Bosse says.
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