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Schools

Concussion Clinic Provides Heads Up for Student Athletes

Tommy Mallon wants his experience to be proof athletic trainers should be a requirement for all sports.

When Santa Fe Christian High School alum Tommy Mallon suffered his third concussion during a lacrosse game, he thought it wasn’t any different from the previous two he had sustained.

“I went down and thought it was just another concussion, but the athletic trainer said, ‘No, stay there, wait for the ambulance,’” said Mallon, who suffered his first two concussions from football and basketball.

What Mallon thought was just another concussion was actually a broken neck, which required months of therapy and perseverance on Mallon’s part.

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“I just wanted to get better. I had that drive. I wanted to get back to sports. … Sitting in a hospital bed wasn’t what I wanted to do,” said Mallon, who completed his recovery in December 2009, almost six months after his fateful injury.

Although Mallon never made it back to the field, his mom, Beth Mallon, said she felt grateful to not have lost him.

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“Basically we were given a miracle. ... We were fortunate, lucky, all of the above,” she said. “He’s limited in what he can do, but he’s alive, he’s walking.”

Mallon and his mother credit his athletic trainer’s quick thinking, which saved him from either becoming a quadriplegic or dying.

“Riki [Kirchhoff] was the one who assessed Tommy and saved his life by insisting he not get up and spine boarding him,” Beth said. “This profession of athletic trainers is so vital. I cannot say enough.”

Mallon’s experience inspired him and his mom to create Advocates for Injured Athletes (AIA), a nonprofit organization that aims to keep student athletes safe. AIA’s primary goal is to make certified athletic trainers available to all high school-aged athletes to ensure they receive quality ongoing preemptive advisement and care, which could then prevent catastrophic accidents and minimize the severity of sports-related injuries.

At this time, California does not require athletic trainers to be on the field, which presents a danger to athletes who are not trained to recognize the symptoms and signs of a concussion.

The Mallons were speakers at a concussion clinic presented Monday night by Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas at Santa Fe Christian in Solana Beach. Scripps Encinitas offers the free concussion presentations to any club, school or organization within San Diego County.

Tim Goldberg, a physical therapist at Scripps Encinitas, saw the night after the Super Bowl as an appropriate time for a presentation about concussions. “Everyone usually thinks of football [with concussions],” said Goldberg, who showed a clip of Washington Redskin Clinton Portis taking a hard hit from an Atlanta Falcon.

“It’s not just football where they have concussions—there they at least have helmets,” said Goldberg, moving on to videos of athletes sustaining head injuries in professional soccer and skateboarding.

A YouTube video of the skateboarder showed him seizing after a fall.  “He wasn’t wearing a helmet. … You can see the devastating effects,” said Goldberg.

Goldberg also half jokingly addressed a sportscaster’s comment in one of the videos that an athlete may have a “touch of a concussion.”

“There’s no touch of a concussion,” Goldberg said. “It’s not like the flu. You can’t sleep it off.”

Concussions affect a wide range of athletes. Football and cheerleading are the top two high school sports reporting concussions, said Goldberg. In college, the top three are football, ice hockey and men’s soccer.

“We know concussions cannot be a hundred percent prevented,” said neurologist Michael Lobatz, who runs the rehabilitation center at Scripps Encinitas. “With young people, the vast majority recover.”

And while helmets provide good protection, they do not protect an individual from sustaining a rotational injury, said Lobatz. “That’s why I say we cannot protect everybody from a concussion.”

Lobatz said parents often approach him when their children have sustained multiple concussions. “They say, ‘My son or daughter has two or three concussions. Should they continue to play?’ The question is always, ‘Well, how good are you?’”

“I always tell them, ‘Unless you’re going to be Babe Ruth at baseball, you’re not going to want to pursue this any longer,” said Lobatz.

Concussions are also the signature injury of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Lobatz, who said they treated more than one hundred soldiers at Camp Pendleton.

Moreover, concussions don’t only affect the young. Elderly people are at high risk for head injuries. “Grandma and grandpa can fall,” said Lobatz. “It’s a lot harder for an older person to recover than a teenager. … It’s a major problem.”

Immediate signs of a concussion include memory issues, slurred speech, dizziness, disorientation, emotional reactions out of proportion, and any loss of consciousness.

Later signs of a concussion include headaches, dizziness, lack of concentration, nausea or irritability, inability to tolerate loud noises or bright lights, or sleep deprivation.

Goldberg suggested several ways to minimize detriment caused by sports-related concussions, including recognizing the signs and symptoms of concussion, making sports staff aware of an athlete’s injury history, and not pressuring athletes to return to play after taking a hit.

Mallon, now in his sophomore year at University of San Diego, advises student athletes to listen to their doctors. “Don’t just take the easy way out,” he said. “Take all the precautions necessary and do what the doctors tell you to do.”

To schedule a presentation at your school, club or organization, email goldberg.tim@scrippshealth.org.

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