Articles Tagged with sports-related severe brain injuries

If your child or teenager currently plays a sport in San Clemente in which there is a risk of a concussion or another type of head injury, you probably have some background knowledge about kids and concussions. In recent years, research into sports-related concussions has shown the serious risks that children and teenagers face from concussions on the field, and the ways in which those concussion injuries, especially if they are repeat injuries, can have long-term consequences for the child into adulthood. In response to sports-related concussion research, coaches and schools in California and across the country changed protocols for injuries, requiring children and teens to take a certain amount of time away from games and practices until a head injury heals. 

However, according to an article in Medical Daily, recent research published in the journal Orthopedics suggests that kids need significantly more time to heal than previous researchers suggested. Indeed, according to the authors of the study, teens who sustain sports-related concussions need at least a month away from any play to heal properly, and most teenage athletes are not taking that kind of time.

Concussions in Teenagers Heal Slowly

jeffrey-f-lin-750541-unsplash-copy-300x200More research funds are going toward sports-related concussion studies and concussion risks for youth athletes. We often think about football and other contact sports when we consider traumatic brain injury (TBI) risks, yet many different sports and recreational activities can put young athletes at serious risk of sustaining a concussion.

A recent study conducted by researchers at Northwestern University found that concussions are more common than we previously thought among female soccer players. Nearly 30% of all soccer injuries are concussions. To put that number in perspective, about 24% of all football injuries are concussions. To put that another way, more girls suffer sports-related concussions playing soccer in high school than do boys who play football.

Girls Soccer Players Suffer Head Injuries More Often Than Boys Soccer Players

brain-injury-300x240Serious accidents and injuries can take place anywhere, and they often happen when we’re least expecting them. Depending on the type and severity of an injury, the consequences can be life-long. According to a recent article in U-T San Diego, a young Carlsbad man recently suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) while playing in a recreational softball league. While he’s currently in stable condition, doctors worry that he may not be able to fully recover.

A “Freak Accident” on the Softball Field

Less than a week ago, 28-year-old Mike Petracca had been in Las Vegas for a softball tournament. However, while he was walking across the softball fields, he sustained a TBI in what his coach referred to as “a freak accident.” While Petracca was walking between the fields, a “softball bat slipped from a player’s hands, flew like a rocket nearly 90 feet over a fence and struck Petracca in the head.”

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