Personal Injury Law

Concussions more than just a headache for injury victims in Chicago

By Kris Briggs

Student athletes attending Chicago public or private schools will now have to produce written medical clearance before being allowed back on to the play or practice fields after demonstrating signs of a concussion, the Chicago Sun Times reports.

To enforce the ordinance, Chicago City Council members also agreed to use school exemptions from water and sewer fees as leverage against the non-compliant.

The anti-concussion ordinance spans elementary through high school aged students and includes practices as well as games. Our Illinois injury lawyers note that women?s hockey and soccer ranked first and second for sports posing the greatest risk of concussion. Football is third. With that said, the Centers for Disease Control report that slip-and-fall accidents and car accidents are the two most common causes for a Traumatic Brain Injury. Falls are responsible for more than a third of all traumatic brain injury accidents; car accidents another 17.3 percent.

That's right: A concussion falls into the same injury category as the brain injury suffered by Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head. Assault accounts for about 10 percent of all brain injuries.

A TBI can range in degree from mild to severe and is caused by a knock to the head sufficient in strength to disrupt ?normal? brain function. A concussion is a TBI. So is a gunshot wound to the head. In short: a TBI can cause a headache, or it can be fatal. In every instance, a person sustaining a blow to the head should be examined immediately by a medical professional.

The CDC reports that 1.7 million Americans sustain a traumatic brain injury each year at a cost of $60 billion in medical care and time away from work. Of them, 52,000 die and another 275,000 require hospitalization. Concussions, or mild TBI, are responsible for about 75 percent of all TBI accidents. And more than a third of all injury-related fatal accidents are caused by a traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injuries are more commonly seen in men and young boys ? infant to age 4 ? have the highest rate of TBI-related emergency room visits, hospitalizations and fatalities.

Regarding concussion-type TBI specifically, the CDC provides the following details. A concussion can impact the injured person?s ability to think clearly and may affect sleep patterns and mood. In some patients recovery is quick; with others, symptoms can last weeks, even months.

~ PHYSICAL signs include: headache, blurred vision, nausea, sensitivity to noise and light, equilibrium dysfunction and exhaustion.

~ COGNITIVE signs include: inability to think clearly, concentrate, retain grasp of short-term information and confusion.
~ EMOTIONAL signs include: irritability, increased emotionalism, anxiety and sadness.

To recuperate, the CDC first and foremost recommends rest. Rest, patience (give yourself time to heal), and avoid alcohol and other drugs that may inhibit your recovery. Do not operate heavy equipment (at home or work) or drive a car until cleared to do so by a physician.

Full post as published by Illinois Injury Law Blog on January 25, 2011 (boomark / email).