Former New Jersey College Football Player Struggles With Concussion’s Impact

"Your mindset is always, play, play, play."

Those are the words of David Showalter, a former college football player from New Brunswick. It’s a difficult point to argue — in the competitive arena of athletics, there’s no way for athletes to achieve excellence without pushing themselves to their limits.

But there’s also such a thing as going beyond the limits, as Showalter learned one afternoon on the field when he collided with a teammate while wearing an improperly fastened helmet. As occurs to hundreds of young athletes each day, the blow resulted in a mild traumatic brain injury — a concussion. Showalter decided to shrug it off and continue playing, a decision he regrets to this day. For weeks afterward he experienced severe headaches, and even today, three years later, he has to deal with residual effects such as irritability and inability to concentrate.

Over 300,000 young athletes sustain brain injuries each year in sports- and recreation-related activities, some of them more fortunate than Showalter, many less fortunate. Brain injuries, concussion among them, often lead to lifelong disability or even death — too high a price to pay for mastery on the field.

But there are ways to decrease this incidence. During the last year, Showalter has been working with the Brain Injury Association of New Jersey as a part of its Concussion in Sports Campaign. The campaign was mounted to increase awareness of the risks of sports-related concussion and the action required to reduce the threat to young athletes.

The Brain Injury Association has taken the initiative in creating a Concussion Consensus Statement, which has been endorsed by 18 statewide agencies to date. The statement outlines the features of concussion and what steps should be taken for both prevention and management. Many will be surprised to learn that athletes who sustain concussions don’t necessarily lose consciousness.
Symptoms are more often disorientation, memory loss, visual or cognitive disturbances, or headache, nausea, or vomiting. Anyone displaying these signs should undergo evaluation by a knowledgeable health professional immediately. Above all, no athlete should be allowed back into play until the concussion is fully healed. As with any other injury, this may take only days, but can take
several weeks.

This fall, 35 high schools in our state will implement ImPACT, a computerized concussion baseline testing and management program. A matching grant, administered by the Brain Injury Association of New Jersey and funded by the New Jersey Traumatic Brain Injury Fund, motivated these schools to participate. The Association hopes that this and other initiatives in the ongoing concussion campaign will encourage all young athletes, as well as parents, coaches, healthcare professionals, teachers, administrators and the general public, to recognize that concussion is a brain injury, and should be taken seriously.

"It could have been so simple," Showalter says. "As far as me telling my coach I needed to sit out." Through his participation in the Concussion in Sports Campaign, Showalter hopes to make the decision even simpler for future athletes who find themselves facing a similar situation.

Thank you to our friends from BIA-NJ for sharing this information with us.

• Category: Brain Injury News
• Tag: Brain Injury News