Personal Narrative: Brain Injury

“Deadly Hits” by Lauren Tarshis analyzes the topic of concussions. Over 300,000 concussions, or brain injuries, occur each year in sporting events. Ms. Tarshis analyzes 13-year-old Zackery Lystedt, a Tahoma Junior High football player, who suffered a near-fatal concussion while playing football in Seattle, Washington. According to the author, Zackery ’s injury was the result of a head injury.

Disability labels fail to represent the child’s unique strengths and detailed limitations. Labels also fail to recognize the severity of the disability. It is crucial for parents, teachers, and members of community to be aware and are educated properly over the critical downfalls of slapping labels on children. Many disability labels are actually very unreliable. Educational evaluation is filled with quirks.

I run with the ball, get tackled, and wait for my teammate to catch my pass so I could return to the line. SMACK! My teammate 's knee slams into my head leaving me dizzy and with a headache. My AP U.S. History exam came the next week with headaches and faulty doctor’s exams.

A boy named Eric from North Allegheny loved the sport so much he hadn’t told people when he wasn’t feeling the best. He had gotten a couple concussions before and followed doctors orders, but the biggest season of his life was coming up and couldn’t stand not being able to play and hear the crowd chant his name. After taking a few more blows he had gotten more concussions, but didn’t bother to tell any of his family or friends. They had noticed him acting completely different and wondered what was going on. Then one night at the dinner table he started having a seizure midsentence.

Imagine being viewed by the world as different. Wouldn’t you want the people around you to understand? A 12-year-old boy diagnosed with autism was told he was not equal to his classmates. He had a hard time identifying social cues and a difficult time speaking, thus he was labeled “weird” and “an outsider”.

Symptoms may include headache or neck pain, also nausea, ringing in the ears, dizziness, and or tiredness. Players may feel dazed or not normal for several days or weeks after the injury. Doctors use neurologic exams and imaging test to diagnose a concussion. Most players recover fully after a concussion, but it can take some

I sprinted for the ball that was bouncing towards the middle of the field. I jumped with the ball to make a header. Crack! I was on the ground and I remember feeling a sharp pain on my forehead. I felt like someone threw a rock at my face.

We were playing Don Lugo when I took a shot to the head in the middle of second-quarter. I felt awful. I didn't know at the time, but that was when I received my first concussion. I played the rest of the game slow and disoriented. When the game ended we had barely won.

I went up for a layup and got pushed hard in the back. When I came down, I felt my knee buckle and immediately knew something wasn’t right. The sound it made was alarming, proving to be a serious injury - a fractured femur. It was my junior year and I was looking forward to playing basketball and starting to train for the next football season.

The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal by Jonathon Mooney portrayed the real meaning behind the definition of “normal”. Throughout Jonathon’s life, he suffered from the denial of teachers, family members, and himself when it came to his academic success. Despite the odds, he overcame his label of “learning disabled” and graduated from Brown University with a 4.0 GPA. Many other students labeled with a disability also suffer from the same aspects as Jonathon. In his book, Jonathon showed the mistreatment that not only he experienced in school, but he also showed how others struggled with an unsupportive school system.

Over the past four years I have seen more doctors than an average person will see in a lifetime. From endocrinologists to neurosurgeons, I have tirelessly sought medical treatment for multiple traumatic brain injuries I incurred at a young age. Through my personal struggle I learned that there is no adequate treatments for concussions and traumatic brain injuries in the State of New Mexico. Although the lack of these services forced me to seek treatment outside my community, it has become my main motivation to return to my community and share the knowledge I have been fortunate to receive through these many experiences.

Stories like this are not uncommon, especially in the physically demanding sports culture we live in today. Concussions should be taken seriously due to the negative effects they can have on the brain. The definition of a concussion is an injury to the brain or to the spinal cord due to jarring from a blow,

This concussion “injury” should not be an issue because of the bigger problem that has arose. This has changed the game of football to tacking at the feet or leg area. The results are torn ACL’s, MCL’s, and hip injuries. This effectively ends that player’s season

I was fortunate to be placed in Ms. Gohil’s classroom because her classroom was dedicated to students with special needs. This allowed me to experience first hand what an actual special education teacher does during a typical class day. I also was able to see paraprofessional work with the students on constant bases, not like my previous experience where the paraprofessional would only visit the child for approximately 20 - 30 mins per class period. What I also like was that I witnessed various behavioral changes from students and was able to see in real time how the teacher and paraprofessional handled these behaviors. At first, I did not understand some of the techniques that were being used, but then I would ask Ms. Gohil questions and

When the hit occurred everyone watching the game knew Cam Newton had suffered a concussion. We all watched in awe as he continued to play, wobbly from the dramatic trauma that had occurred from the previous hit to his head. Collisions like these are the reason that many think the National Football League is nearing an end in the immediate future, as people become more aware of the trauma caused by concussions. This is why the National Football League needs to more strictly enforce their concussion protocol to preserve player’s future health. Not until recently has the National Football League really started cracking down on how players and teams should deal with players who are assumed to have suffered a concussion.