Protecting the brain against concussion Kim Gorgens

[Music]

[Music]

so a funny thing happened on my way to

becoming a brilliant world-class

neuropsychologist I had a baby

and that’s not to say I ever went on to

become a brilliant world-class

neuropsychologist sorry Ted ah but I did

go on to be a reasonably astute arguably

world-class worrier one of my

girlfriend’s in graduate school Murray

said can I figured it out it’s not that

you’re more neurotic than everyone else

it’s just that you’re more honest about

how neurotic you are so in the spirit of

full disclosure I brought some pictures

to share oh I’ll just say July

[Laughter]

for safety water wheeze an inch of water

and then finally all suited up for the

90 minute drive to Copper Mountain so uh

you could get kind of a feel for this so

my baby Vander is 8 years old now and

despite being cursed with my athletic

inability he plays soccer he’s

interested in playing football he wants

to learn how to ride a unicycle so why

would I worry cuz this is what I do this

is what I teach it’s what I study it’s

what I treat and I know that kids get

concussed every year in fact more than 4

million people sustained a concussion

every year and these data are just among

kids under 14 who were seen in emergency

rooms and so when kids sustained a

concussion we talk about them getting

dinged or getting their bell rung but

what is it that we’re really talking

about let’s take a look all right

Starsky and Hutch arguably yes ah so a

car accident forty miles an hour into a

fixed barrier 35 G’s a heavyweight boxer

punches you straight in the face 58 G’s

case you missed it well look again so

look to the right-hand side of the

screen

would you say how many Gees

closed 72 would it be crazy to know a

hundred and three Gees the average

concussive impact is 95 Gees

now when the kid on the right doesn’t

get up right we know they’ve had a

concussion but how about the kid on the

left or the athlete that leaves the

field of play how do we know if he or

she has sustained a concussion how do we

know that legislation that would require

they’d be pulled from play cleared for

return to play applies to them the

definition of concussion doesn’t

actually require a loss of consciousness

it requires only a change in

consciousness and that can be anyone or

a number of symptoms including feeling

foggy feeling dizzy hearing a ringing in

your ear being more impulsive or hostile

than usual so given all of that and

given how darn neurotic I am how do I

get any sleep at all cuz I know our

brains are resilient they’re designed to

recover from an injury if god forbid any

of us left here tonight and sustained

concussion most of us would go on to

fully recover inside of a couple hours

to a couple of weeks but kids are more

vulnerable to brain injury in fact high

school athletes are three times more

likely to sustain catastrophic injuries

relative even to their college-age peers

and it takes them longer to return to a

symptom-free baseline after that first

injury their risk for second injury is

exponentially greater from there their

risk for third injury greater still and

so on and here’s the really alarming

part you don’t fully understand the

long-term impact of multiple injuries

you guys may be familiar with this

research that’s coming out of the NFL in

a nutshell this research suggests that

among retired NFL players with three or

more career concussions the incidence of

early onset dementing disease is much

greater than it is for the general

population so you’ve all seen that New

York Times you’ve seen it what you may

not be familiar with is that this

research was spearheaded by NFL wives

who said isn’t it weird that my 46 year

old husband is forever losing his keys

isn’t it weird that my 47 year old

has-been is forever losing the car isn’t

it weird that my 48 year old has-been is

forever losing his way home in the car

from the driveway so I may have

forgotten to mention that my son is an

only child so it’s gonna be really

important that he be able to drive me

around someday so ah how do we guarantee

the safety of our kids how can we 100%

guarantee the safety of our kids let me

tell you what I’ve come up with

[Laughter]

if only my boys right there and he’s

like she’s not kidding

she’s totally not kidding so uh in all

seriousness should my kid play football

should your kid play football I don’t

know but I do know there are three

things you can do

the first study up you have to be

familiar with the issues we’re talking

about today

there are some great resources out there

the CDC has a program heads up it’s at

CDC gov

to concussion and kids the second is a

resource I’m personally really proud of

we’ve just rolled this out in the last

couple months Co kids with brain injury

this is a great resource for student

athletes teachers parents professionals

athletic and coaching staff it’s a great

place to start if you have questions the

second thing is speak up just two weeks

ago a bill introduced by Senator kefalas

that would have required athletes kids

under 18 to wear a helmet when they’re

riding their bike died in committee it

died in large part because it lacked

constituent buy-in it lacked stakeholder

traction now I’m not here to tell you

what kind of legislation you should or

shouldn’t support but I am gonna tell

you that if it matters to you your

legislators need to know that speak up

also with coaching staff ask about what

kind of protective equipment is

available what’s the budget for

protective equipment how old is it may

be offered a spearhead a fundraiser to

buy new gear which brings us to suit up

wear a helmet the only way to prevent a

bad outcome is to prevent that first

injury from happening recently one of my

graduate students

Tom Tom said Kim I’ve decided to wear a

bike helmet on my way to class and Tom

knows that that little bit of foam and a

bike helmet can reduce the g-force of

impact by half now I thought that it was

because I have this totally

pelling helmet crusade right this

epiphany of Tom’s as it turns out it

occurred to Tom that a twenty dollar

helmet is a good way to protect a

hundred thousand dollar graduate

education so should Vander play football

I can’t say no but I can guarantee that

every time he leaves the house that kids

wearing a helmet like to the car or at

school

so whether athletes scholar

overprotected kid neurotic mom or

otherwise here’s my baby Vander

reminding you to mind your matter

[Applause]

[Music]