Posts
362
Joined
2/26/2012
Location
Temecula, CA
US
Edited Date/Time
1/15/2016 8:08am
I posted this in another topic but thought it would be good idea to remind my fellow pudknockers, trollers, vitards, legends, heroes, old timers, rookies and anyone else I missed of some information about concussions.
Severity is not determined by whether a person was knocked out or not. Also, how long a person is knocked out 30" vs. 5' does not determine severity of injury.
After your first concussion you have a higher chance of suffering a second one with less effort.
Something else people should understand is that a person who suffered a concussion can and will often times have other injuries to the body such as the torso, neck, jaw. Muscle strains, ligament sprains, TMJ etc that can keep someone from returning to ride even though they are cleared from concussion.
My BIGGEST CONCERN is not with the athletes but rather the support staff. Parents, Friends, Coaches, Team Managers, Sponsors those individuals who have a VESTED interest in the athletes participation in sport. These people hold a lot of influence and can be very persuasive either POSITIVELY or NEGATIVELY.
The athlete looks towards these individuals for support and guidance. So when the MEDICAL staff says no riding and the rider hears "I know my kid" "I know my rider" they act like this all the time its normal he/she is fine.
That is a PROBLEM that I deal with far more than I should have to.
Concussions are unlike any other injury, there is no set time frame for healing. Unlike other parts of your body you screw with your brain and it will have far reaching implications down the road that are far worse then limping.
Severity is not determined by whether a person was knocked out or not. Also, how long a person is knocked out 30" vs. 5' does not determine severity of injury.
After your first concussion you have a higher chance of suffering a second one with less effort.
Something else people should understand is that a person who suffered a concussion can and will often times have other injuries to the body such as the torso, neck, jaw. Muscle strains, ligament sprains, TMJ etc that can keep someone from returning to ride even though they are cleared from concussion.
My BIGGEST CONCERN is not with the athletes but rather the support staff. Parents, Friends, Coaches, Team Managers, Sponsors those individuals who have a VESTED interest in the athletes participation in sport. These people hold a lot of influence and can be very persuasive either POSITIVELY or NEGATIVELY.
The athlete looks towards these individuals for support and guidance. So when the MEDICAL staff says no riding and the rider hears "I know my kid" "I know my rider" they act like this all the time its normal he/she is fine.
That is a PROBLEM that I deal with far more than I should have to.
Concussions are unlike any other injury, there is no set time frame for healing. Unlike other parts of your body you screw with your brain and it will have far reaching implications down the road that are far worse then limping.
Athletic coaches have a mandatory concussion component of training where I live. I've been a licensed paramedic for eleven years and I couldn't even skip that portion if I wanted to. I wouldn't be sad to see some of that carry over to general awareness within our sport.
With concussion awareness increasing in other sports, I wonder when it carries over into ours?
Shane
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I'm not a parent but if I was, my policy would be that if my kid gets knocked out or even has his bell rung, he's done for the weekend. No matter what. I wish other riders felt the same way about themselves as well.
The current thought is that if you follow a sound protocol you allow for a better recovery and healing process of the brain.
During my life between riding, playing sports and just being plain dumb, I've had a least 5 concussions I can recall. Two of them were diagnosed by a medical professional and the others were just cases of me knowing what I did and recognizing the symptoms.
I believe 3 of them I ended up being unconscious from and the others I remained awake and was just thrown for a loop. The first one was back when I was about 10 years old and I never felt like I was more prone to them later on because each one definitely was a hard enough impact that anyone would have been concussed from them. This was before concussion research had evolved to the level it is now so there was no waiting period, I just got sent on my way and they told me not to go to sleep for at least 12 hours.
I do think some of my problems later on were directly related to the trauma though. (ie. seizures and neurological issues plus a return of migraines in my twenties that I hadn't experienced since I was about 8 years old)
Luckily I haven't shown any symptoms of those lingering issues in quite a number of years and I have not had any bad accidents in a while either, so I am hoping that some healing has happened and my brain is on a path to recovery rather than degeneration.
Thanks for the information Eddie C
What people also have to keep in mind is that unlike traditional sports programs Asterisk Mobile Medical Center (AMMC) does not have a full time Sports Medicine Staff. Compound that with having professional racers living across the country and around the world and you can see its no easy task trying to get stuff done.
Every rider must have a baseline test done every two years. The test we use is the imPACT Test. This baseline provides us with a set of variables that are exclusive to each rider. I would like to point out that in the event a rider goes down and they are SUSPECTED of having a concussion we DO NOT administer the imPACT test at the track, rather we use a different set tests to determine if a rider has a concussion. These tests include reaction time, balance, short/long term memory, vision and physical exertion. If a DOCTOR MD/DO determines that a rider has a concussion that rider is then put into our return to ride program.
That rider is given our protocol and it must be completed prior to being allowed to visit with the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of the race that rider is wanting to return at. The CMO upon signing off on the protocol will then do his own exam and make his/her final decision.
I have included the exertional component of our protocol. This is done after a rider has passed his post injury imPACT test. We would like for a rider to be supervised by a qualified health care professional during this time but we understand that riders often times live in some remote areas. As such we allow for a parent, mechanic, man friend to over see this with the understanding that if there is doubt the rider will be held out of the next race.
If I could get on my soap box for a second. I have over the last 13 years approached Team Managers and Owners about hiring an Athletic Trainer to provided Sports Medicine services at the practice tracks, races, in house handling everything from concussions, rider physical readiness evaluations, on-site practice track medical, injury rehabilitation, over see athlete strength and conditioning programs, but have always been met with a thanks but no thanks.
I only mention this because this sport is not getting any easier and the depth of talent is probably at the deepest it has ever been. How does one determine if a rider is structurally fit to compete prior to being hired (blown out shoulders/knees, back issues, multiple concussions), how does a team maintain/monitor athlete readiness, how does a team protect its investment from seeking so so "medical" care vs, quality sound proven care. When a rider has a nasty get off at the practice track who do you want caring for your athlete? What if an ambulance is needed?
Thanks for reading hope this answers a few questions and if you guys have any questions you know where to reach me.
Pit Row
Hey Eddie C. question for you. A while ago I believe it was you that mentioned in another concussion thread that the Asterisk medical crew was collecting data from SX crashes. I thought you mentioned that the data would become available at some point. Did that ever happen or do I have a concussion and imagined the whole thing?
Concussions aren't anytbing to mess with. Just ask elderly boxers. If they can answer your questions. Sucks that the ramifications of the concussion really show later in life.
"Oh it's just a concussion" how many times did we say that as racers in 90s and not think anything about it ? Broken bones were terrible, concussions were..."meh, yeah he rung his bell. so what."
I was interested in this movie because I have suffered several concussions with the last one resulting in short term memory loss.
Unfortunately, there are pro level guys that have even rode after a concussion. Hopefully one day they will be taken seriously.
The problem with the data as someone pointed out was if say Brand X helmet has a great contingency program you may more riders with that helmet on the track. We are hoping that if can collect enough data over a longer period of time that variable will work itself out. I am no statistician but that what we are thinking. As much as it would be helpful for the public to know if a certain brand helmet continually has a higher rate of concussions we are a small industry and that would not go over very well. We would be better off giving that info to the brand in hopes that they can use it to fix the design flaw.
So to answer your question, no the info at this point in time will not be available to the public. If anything changes I will make sure to post something here.
I say a guy get ko'd couple of weeks ago. He was out around 5 minutes. Thought he was done for the day for sure. About an 1hr later he comes by me in the pits headed to the track. I was so scared he was going to get hurt again! You don't play with your head.....
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