The Problems Enforcing Washington’s Model Lystedt Concussion Law

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Posted on 1st October 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Many states have enacted concussion laws to protect young athletes, but those rules are not always properly enforced by schools and doctors, according to an incisive article by The New York Times. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/sports/23concussion.html

 Headlined “Despite Law, Town Finds Concussion Dangers Lurk,” the story talks about Sequiem, a hamlet in Washtington, the state whose Lystedt concussion law is a model for such legislation across the country. The law is named after Zackery Lystedt, who suffered permanent brain damage in a high school game.

 The Times chronicles the problems that some parents — even in a state that has a landmark concussion law — face when they try to get schools and medical personnel to adhere to that law. 

In one instance described in the story, a youth who sustained a concussion playing high school football was told on his discharge papers, “May return to sports when able.” That’s not the protocol under the law.

In another case, a junior varsity football player with a concussion didn’t get any medical attention on the field, because medical emergency crews are only assigned to varsity games, according to The Times.

And when one Sequiem mother asked that the school system set up a baseline neuropsychological testing program, an aid in determining when an athlete can safely return to play, she hit a brick wall. She was told that because of liability and legal issues, the school district’s insurance company and the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association both recommended not doing the baseline testing, according to The Times. 

The story puts a spotlight on the fact that not just laws, but successful enforcement, is a crucial part of protecting youthful athletes from concussions. 

NFL Commissioner Goodell Asks 44 Governors To Pass Youth Concussion Laws

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Posted on 24th May 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell last week sent letters to the governors of 44 states imploring them to pass laws, like the one in Washington state, that protect young student athletes who suffer concussions. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hvOCfeO2dM98z2jlCj7eqv0lDfUwD9FSM7OO2

Goodell’s letter, according to the Associated Press, was expected to be mentioned by Dr. Richard Ellenborgen during a concussion forum that Congressman John Conyers, D-Mich., is holding today, Monday, in Manhattan.

The NFL put its head in the sand for many years in terms of acknowledging the long-term impact of brain injury. Now, the league and Goodell are actively promoting the institution of proper guidelines for those who suffer concussions while playing sports.

“The NFL has taken a much more aggressive approach in recent years in identifying and treating concussions among our own players,” Goodell wrote in his letter. “We have implemented an awareness campaign to make certain that everyone in the league, including players and coaches, is better equipped to identify concussion symptoms. Our primary rule is: The medical staffs determine when a player is ready to return, not the coach nor the player himself.”

http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d81847223&template=with-video-with-comments&confirm=true

The NFL is urging the 44 states without student-brain injury guides to use the Lystedt Law in Washington as their model. That legislation is named after Zackery Lystedt, a high school player who went back into a game in 2008 after sustaineing a concussion, and then had to be hospitalized and nearly died.   

Dr. Ellenborgen was Lystedt’s surgeon. The NFL’s Head, Neck and Spine Committee is chaired by Dr. Ellenborgen and Dr. Hunt Batjer, who testified at today’s hearing.

 ”The Center for Disease Control estimates that there may be as many as 3.8 million sports and recreation-related concussions in the United States each year,” Goodell wrote in his letter. “These injuries are sustained by both boys and girls in numerous contact sports.”

He continued, “Given our experience at the professional level, we believe a similar approach is appropriate when dealing with concussions in all youth sports. That is why the NFL and its clubs urge you to support legislation that would better protect your state’s young athletes by mandating a more formal and aggressive approach to treatment of concussions.”

The Lystedt law’s has three major components: Athletes, parents and coaches must be educated about the dangers of concussions each year; if a young athlete is suspected of having a concussion, he/she must be removed from a game or practice and not be permitted to return to play; and a licensed health care professional must clear the young athlete to return to play in the subsequent days or weeks.

“We would urge that similar legislation be adopted in your state,” Goodell wrote. “We believe that sports and political leaders can help raise awareness of these dangerous injuries and better ensure that they are treated in the proper and most effective way. Young athletes, as well as parents, coaches and school officials in your state, will thank you for taking a stand on this important issue.”

 

 

 

Super Bowl Coverage And the Concussion Issue

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Posted on 8th February 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Better late than never. The NFL seems to have finally figured out that its sport’s future depends on protecting its most important asset, the players. It may be a little naive, but from this perspective, it seems that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell really gets it. Concussions involve brain injury. Brain injured players aren’t very good players and have lots of problems after they retire.

With the Super Bowl just hours away from starting, Goodell told “Face the Nation” Sunday that the league was still studying ways to make the game safer and cut down head injuries in particular.

Goodell said that the so-called “three point stance,” where players square off with one hand on the ground, could eventually be barred, according to a New York Times story on his interview with Bob Schieffer. The article was headlined “Commissioner Stresses New Culture of Safety.” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/sports/football/08nfl.html?ref=sports

On the “Face the Nation,” Goodell said that for years “the culture” at the NFL was that concussions weren’t serious injuries.

“I think we have changed that culture and made sure that people understand they are serious and they can have serious consequences if they’re not treated seriously,” he told Schieffer.

On Super Bowl Sunday both The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Washington Post weighed in on the concussion issue.

In an editorial, http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/83742022.html
The Inquirer cited a Time magazine issue with a cover story on “the most dangerous game,” pro-football, which The Inquirer said “has crippled retirees mentally and physically.”

Young players sustain 140,000 concussions a year, and half of them return to the field so soon they may suffer permanent braind damage, The Inquirer warns.

And Washington Post columnist Leonard Shapiro complained that the Super Bowl pregame show and telecast made no mention of the concussion issue. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/07/AR2010020703736.html

It is an interesting question, whether football is really the most dangerous sport. Boxing will always be on the top of my list even though it involves far fewer participants. The goal of boxing is to cause a brain injury to one’s opponent. Much of the impetus behind the growing movement to forbid return to play on the day of a concussion comes out of concern for the “second impact syndrome.” In second impact syndrome, the brain’s ability to regulate cranial blood pressure is impaired by the first concussion. When a second concussion occurs there can be a resulting catastrophic increase in intracranial pressure, ICP. It was such injury that caused Zachery Lystedt’s brain injury. Well how does one reconcile no return to play rules, when the injured person continues to box?

The Near-Fatal Football Injury That Lead To California’s Proposed Laws on Concussions

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Posted on 26th January 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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We recently wrote that California is considering new legislation that would impose strict guidelines on when high school athletes can return to the field after sustaining head injuries. Only three other states have policies as strict as the one California is considering.

The San Francisco Chronicle today has a detailed story, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/24/MN6V1BM6OR.DTL, on
the young man whose near-fatal football injury lead to the proposed legislation.

Blea was playing for San Jose Academy High when he was hit in the chest during a play at a Thanksgiving Day game last year. He got up from the field, got to the sidelines and then collapsed. He was put in a drug-induced coma for a week, spent almost a month in hospitals and lost 31 pounds, according to the Chronicle.

The story cites a number of statistics regarding high school injuries. For example, about 68,000 concussions were sustained during the 2008 high school football season, according to the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study.

And the man who helped organize that study, Ohio State associate professor Dawn Comstock, said that in 2008 16 percent of high school football players who had concussions where they lost consciousness went back to play that same day.

Blea played as a running back and linebacker, positions that one study found are most likely to get concussions.

Two U.S. high school players died as a direct result of football injuries last year, the Chronicle story says.

Physicians say Blea’s outlook is good, but he can’t play football again.

When he was hit, Blea fell and his head hit the turf, with his brain “slamming against his skull,” according to the Chronicle.

The story then describes his surgeries and recovery.

California Weighs Strict Laws To Protect Student Athletes With Concussions

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Posted on 24th January 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Momentum for the Lystedt Law which prevents a concussed scholastic athlete to return to the game in which he or she receives a concussion continues to grow. California, often on the vanguard of American culture and society, has joined the movement to impose tough laws to protect young sports players from concussions.

California is considering new legislation and a proposal from the state’s high school sports federation that would mandate that physicians have a say before an injured can return to play, according to a story Friday in the San Bernardino County Sun.

The story, http://www.sbsun.com/sports/ci_14244046, says that only three other states have policies as strict as the one California is considering.

The legislation was proposed after the near-death of San Jose High Academy Football player Matt Blea, according to the story.

California Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi has introduced two bills. The first would require coaches to become familiar with the symptoms of head injuries. The second would require a physician to give an OK before an injured player could get back on the field.

That second bill is similar to a proposal that the California Interscholastic Federation, which governs sports at about 1,500 schools, is considering.

Currently many California school districts mandate that injured student players must get a physician’s release before resuming play, according to the story. But not all schools have such a policy.

Zachery Lystedt was a high school football player in Washington who suffered a mild concussion early in a game but continued to play. Near the end of the game he suffered another concussion, which resulted in a severe brain injury. His injury became the impetus for a law in his home state of Washington prohibiting any return to play of a scholastic athlete after a concussion.