By Andrew Webber
For The Daily World
Surprisingly, this year many schools in our area are choosing to not support baseline concussion testing. A baseline test, at under $15 per test, is a critical, entry-level tool for measuring a child’s recovery from a head injury. With an accurate baseline test, medical providers can track cognitive ability and therefore measure the healing process, allowing them to accurately decide when a student-athlete can return to normal activity.
Knowing when a child can “return to play” with a fully healed brain is essential. Many studies show that almost all children fully recover from single-incident concussions, while successive concussions, where the child isn’t fully recovered from the previous injury, can have long-term consequences for even minor concussions. Without help, it is very difficult, even for a medical provider, to know exactly when a student should return to play; each person is unique and heals at a different rate. Without a baseline, never minding the wide variety of policies and procedures that can also reduce risk (steps few, if any of our schools are taking at this time), we are essentially gambling with our children’s long-term mental health for the sake of a game — being played for free. I’m not a Las Vegas man, but I don’t like the expected value of that gamble.
In my past occupation, I facilitated this mental health gamble in one of the few instances where it was perhaps forgivable. On my third deployment with the 173rd Airborne Brigade, where we were plopped into the second most violent province of Afghanistan. IEDs and explosions were part of the daily routine, and we had a solid concussion protocol, but sometimes ignored it.
In one particular incident, insurgents ambushed one of our platoons, inflicting multiple casualties and immobilizing several vehicles, fixing them in a bad place. We sent our back-up platoon, and insurgents ambushed and fixed them as well. Other units were either too far away, or fully engaged in their own fights, so as often happens in combat, we were down to our contingency-to-the-contingency plan. A young lieutenant, who was still showing symptoms of injury due to prior concussions, was called up to lead a final attempt to extricate our soldiers. Even in that “high-impact” situation, we made it clear that he didn’t have to go. He went anyway and suffered another concussion when his vehicle struck a buried mine, but as we’d expect from a young Ranger, he pushed through and extricated his fellow paratroopers.
Fast-forward a year and he had to leave the service due to his concussions, and even today struggles with serious neurological issues. We spent a wonderful young man’s mind on what we thought was a life-or-death situation.
It absolutely kills me that schools are essentially taking this same risk with the next generation’s health for the payout of a few dollars saved per child in the name of amateur youth sports.
A baseline test is step one, the easiest win. Other highly effective polices, such as return to play plans, access to specialty care and proper equipment management are also likely being neglected if we aren’t even willing to pick the low-hanging fruit.
This casual attitude toward concussions could have serious far-reaching consequences. As recent cases in Washington have shown, inattentive schools are being hammered in court for failing to take reasonable actions. There could be a point where school districts can no longer afford to provide sports for their students due to self-inflicted costs. It’s unfortunate because organized athletics are an essential part of growth. I can’t think of a better way to learn how to be a resilient, team-oriented adult.
If you’re planning on participating in sports without a baseline test, please don’t. Seriously, send me a text or give me a call at 312-912-5592 and I’ll make sure you get a baseline test, no questions asked. At this point, it seems, to protect our children and the value of youth sports, we have to take matters into our own hands.
Andrew Webber is a 2001 Willapa Valley High School grad, a 2005 U.S. military graduate and, thanks to the GI Bill, a current law student at Northwestern University Law, Chicago.
