The defender picks up the puck, skates around the net, and sees an open man. He gives it to the left wing skating across center ice. When he received the pass, he didn’t pick his head up. The opposing team’s defenseman read the play like a book. He skates full speed, gets an angle, and CRACK!!!!!! the defenseman hit him right in the head. The kids was knocked out cold. After he got out of the hospital, he was diagnosed with a severe concussion. When he got hit, his brain moved around in his skull. He took care of it and did what he was supposed to and he had no brain damage.


“it felt hangover like.” When he was sent home from the hospital, he was given instructions and he followed them. His answer to the question, what was the healing process like? was, i was in a dark room with no light or sound for a week straight, it was like torture, and then i slowly started to come out and walking, reading, and listening to things. walking was the hardest thing to start doing again. When I asked him how hard it was for him to come back to his regular life, he said "i was always tired, i lost a lot of muscles and i was scared because i didn’t want to get hurt again." He said that the next time that he went skiing, he was very scared and nervous. When I asked him to explain how he felt during the healing process he said "Really bored and i felt stupid for getting hurt and felt self pity and anger." He told me that the whole experience was awful. Because he took care of it and took the proper precautions, he is back to his normal life, but it could have been way worse.Liam Simons, an 8th grader at the Rindge avenue upper school in Cambridge massachusetts, has suffered a level 3 concussion while he was skiing. He fell and hit his head. He said that it took 3 ½ months to get back to normal. He was knocked out for 10-15 minutes and when he woke up, he didn’t remember anything for ½ an hour. When i asked him how it felt when he woke up, he said .

10% of athletes will experience a concussion in any given sport season. Fewer than 10% of sport related concussions involve a Loss of Consciousness (e.g., blacking out, seeing stars, etc.) Estimated 47% of athletes do not report feeling any symptoms after a concussive blow. Headache (85%) and Dizziness (70-80%) are most commonly reported symptoms immediately following concussions for injured athletes. CDC (centers for disease control and prevention) estimates reveal that 1.6 million to 3.8 million concussions occur each year. Almost half a million (473,947) emergency department visits for TBI are made annually by children aged 0 to 14 years. At least 1.7 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the United States each year. Of those individuals, about 52,000 die, 275,000 are hospitalized, and 1.365 million are treated and released from an emergency department.

Chris Nowinski, co-founder and president of the Sports Legacy Institute (SLI), is the writer of the book Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis. He was interviewed when it became a documentary. His answer to the question what is the biggest misconception about concussions? Was "That they don’t have long-term consequences and that once you feel better, you’re fine. You may not be fine and need to rest and let your brain recover." When he was asked about his struggles now, from his concussion in 2002, he said “I can’t drive without a GPS. I can’t exercise without getting a headache and without feeling sick... I don’t have the patience I once did. I take a stimulant for my cognition everyday. The days I forget to take it, I notice it. I don’t even know what my own baseline is anymore. I don’t know if I’m any good without medication.”

We know a lot more about concussions, but not enough. With that being said, there should be some temporary solutions to lessen the amount of concussions. I think that sports should be more strict about contact to the head. For instance, in the NFL the rule is if a defenseless player is hit helmet to helmet is illegal, but if the offensive player can avoid it, than it is no longer illegal. I think that the nfl should make all head to head contact illegal. Also, the consequences should be larger for head to head contact hits. To lessen the severity of concussions, there should be rules put in place after a bad hits to keep the player out.

Concussions are no game. You have to take the proper precautions and treat them with care so the person can heal as fast as possible and lessen any chance of them having any brain damage in the future. You don't have to be knocked out in order to have a concussion, most aren't, symptoms may not happen right away, if you play with a concussion it can get worse, hits don't have to be to the head in order to get a concussion, and get ten one concussion greatness the chance of getting another one and so on. If you don't take proper care of a concussion than you may end up with brain damage and in some severe cases, even death. There is a lot of concussion research going on but, any donations won't hurt. Any amount will help.