New Case for
Fall 2010
Return to Play -
Case of the Month
Kristen, age 16 -
Varsity Soccer and Softball
Introduction - Helmet struck athlete's head with no loss of
consciousness
Kristen is an athletic 2 sport
varsity athlete. She can be high
strung so the fact that she was injured
put pressure on Kristen and her family.
She
sustained an immediate headache
following the collision with another
softball player while playing second
base. She did not loose
consciousness. Kristen is an elite
softball player on a traveling team.
She has had 2 prior concussions before
the current event in August 2010.
Kristen is a tall and well build
sophomore in high school. She weighs 140 pounds.
She was not knocked unconscious and
returned to play after a few minutes.
After the game she developed a dull
headache. On Sunday morning she
felt significantly better and largely
without symptoms. Neither parent
observed the injury. As the
weekend went on Kristen developed a
headache that did not go away. By
now, she guessed that she had probably
sustained another concussion.
Kristen had a significant reaction including
head pain, irritability, fogginess, and mild confusion. These
symptoms lasted for 5 days and
required a formal consultation with his school to provide
academic accommodations. Kristen attends a public school
that does not offer ImPACT baseline
testing but fortunately for her her
mother was vigilant about concussion and
was pushing the school's athletic
director to begin offering ImPACT
testing to help manage student athletes
who become injured during play. As
of this post they had not done so.
Academic history
Kristen was a solid A & B student who
planned on playing college softball -
her true love. Neuropsychological testing revealed a
moderate elevation in her symptom score
including difficulty sleeping, recurring
headaches, fatigue, irritability,
feeling more emotional than usual and
mild change in concentration.
Her testing revealed deficits in reaction time, scanning and
visual motor speed. He was
prescribed a course of rest to allow her
brain to return to its estimated
baseline functioning - this was a slow
process. She slept for
most of 3 days after the recent injury. Given this
was her third concussion extra care
was taken to assure she did not
return to play before she was ready.
Continued
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