Teen football players often play through pain
Seattle-area teenager Ben Zipp still has headaches from the injury that he suffered during a game in September.
Before that fateful day, he had felt symptoms of a concussion, including headaches and nausea, but was determined to play. During the game, his brain started bleeding and he collasped in a seizure.
He says he’s lucky to be alive. He was helicoptered off the field and spent three weeks in intensive care. “A doctor told me that with one more big hit, they wouldn’t have even needed to call the helicopter,” the 16-year-old told the Seattle Times.
The newspaper ran a special report this week profiling five teen football players in Washington state who have suffered severe head injuries in recent years. This has been a tough season elsewhere too, with three players dying in North Carolina and three in New Jersey. Others, like Ben, have suffered life-changing injuries.
According to the Times’ story, studies estimate that as many as 47 percent of high-school football players have suffered a concussion. More than a third have suffered at least two.
The Brain Injury Association of Washington is lobbying for a bill that would require any athlete with symptoms of a concussion to be removed from play. Only a medical professional could give the teen permission to return to the field.
The bill is being called Lystedt’s Law. Zack Lystedt was critically injured in 2006 when he made two hits. Zachery, 13 at the time, sat out for 15 minutes after the first hit, but then returned to the game. His team did not have an athletic trainer.
Zack, who went into a coma, couldn’t talk for nine months. He still cannot walk.
Since this story ran, the Lystedt law passed in Washington state - unfortunately. Sounded good but not as soon as you “follow the money.” The law is good for doctors getting paid to do new legislatively required exams, and good for personal injury attorneys suing school districts (see Lystedts, Richard Adler and Tahoma SD) (and what a coincidence! - both were directly involved in lobbying for this law). Not so good for kids allowed to keep playing sports known to be high risk for brain injury until they get a brain injury. Wouldn’t it have been smarter to focus all this activity on redirecting schools, kids and their parents (!) toward sports that don’t involve high risk for brain injury?