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MEDICAL: INJURIES: CONCUSSIONS:
Teen Who Sustained 11 Concussions Looks Back on Misunderstood Injuries
Teen Who Sustained 11 Concussions Looks Back on Misunderstood Injuries
By Jackie Friedman/
The Star-Ledger
October 17, 2009, 11:44PM
<http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/10/a_hostage_to_concussions.html>
As her former teammates huddle around their coach, Niki Popyer stands
several arms lengths away, just out of earshot. "No matter how close I
am," she says, "Im on the outside."
She shields her pain behind a full grin until a haze sets in. She glances
past her teammates to the basketball hoop 60 feet away.
Tears seem imminent but never come. Crying hurts too much it drives more
blood to her damaged, 16-year-old brain.
Popyer cant play basketball, and may never again. She cant ride on a train
or swim in the ocean. Doing her makeup takes more concentration, and she
cant blow-dry her hair. She cant practice driving a car for too long,
watch TV for more than an hour, walk outside without sunglasses, or go to
the movies without getting headaches.
With the renewed nationwide attention on concussions sustained by football
players at all levels, Popyer is a reminder of the dangers of head
injuries in all sports, especially among young female participants.
Popyer has had 11 concussions in four years, according to her parents,
including five in the past 10 months.
Each concussion extends her recovery time and makes her more susceptible
to another. Every aspect of her life social, academic, athletic has been
shaken.
The life she is living is not the one she had planned, one as a rising
basketball star at Marlboro High who figured to be fielding scholarship
offers about now.
She tells her story through broken anecdotes, turning for help when she
loses her concentration or when she realizes she cant remember what
happened. The sport that promised her so much is now stealing her memory.
And yet she still has trouble getting people to take her seriously.
A hostage to concussions
<http://www.stockton.edu/ospreys/Concussion/ConcussionHostage.pdf>
NFL-Boston University Partnership May Be A Great Christmas Present for
Dementia
Dorian Martin
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Health Central
<http://www.healthcentral.com/alzheimers/c/42/98860/boston-partnership/>
Now for a piece of good news this Christmas: as part of a partnership,
the National Football League (NFL) will encourage current and former NFL
players to agree to donate their brains to the Boston University Center
for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy. This Christmas present the
formation of this partnership is somewhat amazing since the Boston
University researchers have consistently been critical on the NFLs stance
concerning players concussions. The lead paragraph of a story by New York
Times reporter Alan Schwarz puts this announcement into perspective: After
weeks of transforming its approach to concussions and its research into
their long-term effects among players, the N.F.L. not only announced
suddenly that it would support research by its most vocal critics but also
conceded publicly for the first time that concussions can have lasting
consequences.
<snip>
This partnership also could lead to important findings that can assist
another group struggling with the impact of concussions young girls who
play sports. Another recent Washington Post story reported on 16-year-old
Niki Popyer, who asked Congress to back legislation calling on the federal
government to develop concussion management guidelines. Popyer was forced
to give up playing basketball after suffering multiple concussions. Popyer
suffered her first concussion in a seventh grade basketball game after
hitting her head on the floor while diving for a loose ball. Her early
concussions were not diagnosed until a neurologist finally reviewed her
injuries. Popyer said seven of her 11 concussions were determined as being
sports-related, and that she's become more concussion-prone in recent
years. She described how she has suffered from severe headaches, some of
which made her dizzy, nauseous, and sensitive to light and sound. Another
girl a thirteen-year-old also had to drop out of sports due to a
concussion.
Girl who sustained 11 concussions seeks new law
SLIDESHOW Previous Next
Niki Popyer, 16, from Marlboro, N.J., is seen on Capitol Hill in
Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2009, before a news conference on Concussion
Treatment and Care Tools Act (ConTACT). (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez
Monsivais) (Pablo Martinez Monsivais - AP)
By FREDERIC J. FROMMER
The Associated Press
Tuesday, December 15, 2009; 3:49 PM
Washington Post
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2009/12/15/AR2009121502571.html>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/yjeyn88>
WASHINGTON -- A 16-year-old New Jersey girl who was forced to give up
basketball because she suffered multiple concussions wants Congress to
step in to reduce such injuries in youth sports.
Niki Popyer of Marlboro teamed up with two former NFL players in backing
legislation calling on the federal government to develop concussion
management guidelines. The bill would also establish a grant program to
states to come up with ways to prevent, diagnose and treat sports-related
concussions in schools.
<snip>
While most recent attention in sports concussions has been on the NFL,
backers of the bill put a different face on the problem: female, young,
school-aged.
"Concussions are not limited to the NFL, nor are they limited to
football," Sen. Robert Menendez, who along with fellow New Jersey Democrat
Rep. Bill Pascrell, is pushing the Concussion Treatment and Care Tools
Act, or ConTACT Act.
<snip>
Popyer said she suffered her first concussion in a basketball game in 7th
grade, when she hit her head on the floor diving for a loose ball. She and
her parents said that the first concussions were not diagnosed as such at
the time; only when a neurologist reviewed the injuries were they able to
get an accurate count. Popyer said that seven of the 11 concussions were
sports-related, and that she's become more concussion-prone in recent
years.
PASCRELL, MENENDEZ JOINED BY NFL PLAYERS ASSOCIATION AND FORMER NFL
PLAYERS TOM CARTER AND ERNIE CONWELL IN WELCOMING STUDENT ATHLETESTO
CAPITOL HILL TO RAISE AWARENESS OF LEGISLATION ON SPORTS-RELATED
CONCUSSIONS
<http://pascrell.house.gov/apps/list/
press/nj08_pascrell/pr12152009.shtml>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/yh88qew>
WASHINGTON Continuing the fight against the impact of sports-related
concussions on student athletes, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-8) and
U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (NJ-8) both sponsors of the Concussion
Treatment and Care Tools (ConTACT) Act were joined today by two former
NFL players and the NFL Players Association in welcoming two student
athletes to Capitol Hill.
Many college and professional athletic associationsincluding the NFLhave
all adopted guidelines for the management of concussions. However, much
of this information has not made its way to our local middle schools and
high schools, said Pascrell, the co-founder and co-chair of the
Congressional Brain Injury Task Force. It is for this reason that I
introduced the ConTACT Act last November. The ConTACT Act is designed to
provide our schools and coaches with the tools needed to ensure that
student athletes receive the proper care for concussionsregardless of the
sport they play.
Congressman Pascrell and Senator Menendez welcomed two student athletes
who did not have the benefit of the guidelines that the legislation seeks
to provide.
Niki Popyer, 16, of Marlboro, N.J., spoke of her suffering 11 concussions
on the high school basketball court that not only ended her promising
future as a player, but have affected her performance in school and
participation in everyday activities.
Abby Cahalan, 13, of Baltimore, MD, recalled her episode of sustaining a
concussion in February 2008 as middle-school student playing indoor
soccer. The lack of knowledge of her condition soon after the injury
inhibited her recovery and ability to resume playing soccer.
The young ladies received words of encouragement from Tom Carter, a former
Washington Redskins defensive back, and Ernie Conwell, who played tight
end for the New Orleans Saints.
George Atallah, the NFL Players Association assistant executive director
of external affairs, pledged the organizations full support of the ConTACT
Act and commitment to making sure student athletes compete in the safest
possible circumstances.
With concussions, key is keeping your head
By Peter Keating
For GIRL Magazine
(Archive)
Updated: October 19, 2009, 3:12 PM ET
<http://sports.espn.go.com/highschool/rise/news/story?id=4561897>
Maybe the most unsettling thing about concussions -- when your brain gets
bruised from banging against your skull -- is how easily one leads to
another if you don't heal properly.
And it's hard to know when a head injury is healed.
"I used to get hurt a lot, but I never stayed out of a basketball game,"
says Niki Popyer, 16, a junior at Marlboro (Marlboro, N.J.). "Until
concussions."
<snip>
By the time Niki was playing AAU ball, she was on her eighth concussion.
Her tally has risen into the double digits, from acts as simple as friends
bumping her head as they try to put an arm around her.
"Concussions come so much easier for me now," she says. "I don't think
I've totally recovered since the first one."
Niki's gotten so many head injuries playing hoops that she's sensitive to
bright lights and loud sounds, and she always has to carry sunglasses and
earplugs -- she even wore pink plugs to the prom last year. She has
trouble concentrating, which makes it hard to study in school or go out
with groups of friends.
Nobody knows why girls get sports concussions so much more often than
boys. One reason could be physical: Women and men have different levels of
neck strength and different hormones protecting their brains. Another
could be equipment: In lacrosse, for example, while boys typically are
required to wear pads and helmets, girls aren't.
And it could also be that girls are often quick to dismiss symptoms. As
Niki puts it, "I always used to have headaches for a bunch of reasons, so
I didn't think anything was wrong when I got them."
<snip>
NFL raising alarms about head injuries
Miami Herald
---------------
Similar stories:
NFL to ask its players to donate brains for study
The NFL is partnering with Boston University brain researchers who have
been critical of the league's stance on concussions, The Associated Press
learned Sunday.
Much more needed to protect NFL players
W hen Pittsburgh wide receiver Hines Ward went on NBC last Sunday and said
the Steelers' locker room was divided 50-50 on whether quarterback Ben
Roethlisberger should have played against the Baltimore Ravens that day,
he surely and perhaps even unknowingly shed an even brighter spotlight on
the most significant problem the NFL has always faced in dealing with
player concussions.
Girl who sustained 11 concussions seeks new law
A 16-year-old New Jersey girl who was forced to give up basketball because
she suffered multiple concussions wants Congress to step in to reduce such
injuries in youth sports.
Niki Popyer of Marlboro teamed up with two former NFL players in backing
legislation calling on the federal government to develop concussion
management guidelines. The bill would also establish a grant program to
states to come up with ways to prevent, diagnose and treat sports-related
concussions in schools.
She was joined at a Capitol Hill news conference by 13-year-old Abby
Cahalan of Baltimore, who had to give up soccer after sustaining a
concussion last year.
--------------
BY LEONARD SHAPIRO
Special to the Miami Herald
<http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/football/story/1333690.html>
To its credit, the NFL also has been taking more of a proactive role,
particularly in now mandating baseline tests on players who sustain
concussions in order to make certain they are not rushed back on the
field. The league has established an anonymous hot line for player whistle
blowers to report any perceived abuses by team medical or coaching staffs
in putting a player back in the game despite ``getting his bell rung'' or
``dinged,'' football-speak for being knocked out.
In recent years, the league also has toughened the rules on dangerous
helmet-to-helmet hits, though many still occur with far too much alarming
frequency. The bottom line, of course, is that football always has been a
dangerous game played by what one long-time league trainer recently
described to me as ``neuromuscular geniuses.''
The fact that players are so much bigger, faster and stronger than ever
before hardly bodes well for the health and well being of anyone now
playing in a league where size really does matter now more than ever.
Much more obviously needs to be done, including improvements to helmets as
a first line of defense. Most of the major manufacturers have been trying
to come up with new designs to prevent serious head trauma. The Riddell
company has one model that even sends a wireless alert to the team's
training staff after a potentially dangerous impact on the field.
One of the more promising helmet developments has been produced by the
Xenith Company in Lowell, Mass., founded by Vin Ferrara, a former Harvard
quarterback. The Xenith X1 includes 18 air-filled polyurethane shock
absorbers lining the inside. Each disk, resembling a hockey puck, also has
a hole in the middle that allows air to escape. The disk compresses more
for a moderate hit and less for a heavier blow and several college teams
using it are reporting far fewer concussions.
---------------------------------------------
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