Concussions in Student Athletes By: Hailey Henshaw

           

            This year at MGA concussions on student athletes is a hot topic that might even take MGA by storm. If you are a student athlete, or even if you’re not, concussions are increasingly gaining national attention rapidly. A concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury usually caused by a blow or jolt to the head. Typically, you hear that someone gets a concussion from a sport like Football, Field Hockey, or Soccer, but anybody can get concussions, not just athletes. And they can cause serious problems in your everyday life from reading a book to driving a car. According to the statistics collected by UPMC Sports Medicine Concussion Program, 5 of 10 concussions go unreported or undetected. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 3.8 million sports-related concussions are reported yearly in the United States.

This bill wants to enforce that there be medical professionals (EMT’S) be on site at every sporting event for medical attention in case of an emergency, there are many obstacles that come with that. For urban areas there won’t be problem having medical professionals there because they could be less than 10 miles away from the closet hospital, but for rural areas the closet hospital could be as far away as 45 miles. Do you think it’s necessary? I’ve asked Sydney Harmon, a delegate from Kenston Forest about what she thought about EMT’s being present at every sporting event. “I think it’s good because having an EMT on site can save that person’s sports career, and even their life. And yes, I know people will ask about where the funding will have to come from but it’s mostly volunteer work. I also asked her what she thought about teachers having to take a class to be prepared for a situation at a sporting event that needed medical attention right away but can’t get the medical attention they need. She said “Yes I think they should be required to take a class because in Rural areas where the closest hospital is 30 miles away the athlete that's injured needs medical attention no matter the case, although it isn't easy to diagnose a concussion the signs can be vivid.