What professionals say

ESPN asked 320 people whether they would play in the Super Bowl with a concussion. A surprising 272 players answered that they would play in a Super Bowl with a concussion. That means that only 48 people answered that they would tell the trainer or coach that they had a concussion. Getting to the Super Bowl is an experience most players don't want to miss, no matter what the consequences (espn.go.com).Think about that, you have a concussion and if you get another concussion it could be life changing but most athletes say that they would rather play in what is probably one of the biggest games of your life. According to an anonymous survey online, this information was gathered: first the good news, three quarters of those surveyed reported having previous concussion education, and most said they could correctly recognize the principal symptoms of concussion: 93% headache, 89% dizziness, 78% sensitivity to light and difficulty remembering, 76% difficulty concentrating, 52.5% feeling in a fog and 90%  recognized the risk of serious injury if they returned to play too quickly. But, almost always there is bad news: an astounding 91% of the people surveyed felt that it was okay for an athlete to play with a concussion, 75% said they would play through an injury to win a game,  53% said they would "always or sometimes continue to play with a headache sustained from an injury," only 54% would "always or sometimes report symptoms of a concussion to their coach," only 40% would tell their coach immediately if they had concussion symptoms (www.momsteam.com).

Personal Experiance

I have felt like I have had a concussion before. It was recently, two weekends ago, we were having dinner with my mom and dad's friends and I had a massive headache and I was exhausted. I had been sleeping fine recently and I had no idea why I had a massive headache. The first thing that came to mind was that I had a concussion and I had got it while playing soccer. I remembered that the Wednesday before I had been trying to kick the ball the opposite way I was running then I had turned to see where the ball was going, I tripped on a bump in the soccer field and while I was falling I tried to keep my head from hitting the ground but instead of doing that I only made it worse. When I hit the ground and everything was on the ground but my head, instead of my head not hitting the ground, it snapped and hit the ground incredibly hard, I got up and didn't think much about it until the dinner with our friends. In the end my mom convinced me that I did not have a concussion but that I had either nothing or medical school syndrome (en.wikipedia.org). I have been "studying" concussions because of  mock trial and the latest case is about concussions (www.classroomlaw.org).

From her friends perspective and what it means to be a friend

One of Mia’s good friends, Chris Durant, had a big part in this incident. Chris had been Mia's friend since middle school when they ran on the track team together.

The week of the tournament they had 3 tests together. On Monday they had their Honors Pre-Calculus exam and they both felt like they aced it. They had 2 more tests left that week. Mia said that she was glad she would have a chance to blow off some steam at practice that night. But Tuesday when Mia came to Advanced Personal Fitness she seemed different, quieter than usual and kind of down. Chris asked her what was wrong and Mia said "nothing, nothing’s wrong." But when she looked uncoordinated in zumba, and asked to sit out halfway through, Chris asked her again. “She told me that she had a headache and asked me if I had medicine so I gave her some Ibuprofen.” says Chris.

When they were walking to AP chemistry “I asked Mia whether she was feeling better. She said no, not really. I asked her whether the headache was from the stress of all our tests." says Chris, "She said, maybe that's part of it, but mostly I think it's because I tripped in practice last night and hit my head really hard when I fell. Do you remember the concussion I got last spring? I'm feeling a bit like I did then, sort of woozy and out of it. I started getting the headache last night. I asked if she'd told her mom or anyone besides me about hitting her head and she said, “Are you kidding? If I did, they wouldn't let me play in the Showcase. I have to play; it's my big chance. You know I can't afford college without a scholarship. Promise you won't tell anyone about this!” I must have looked concerned, because I was. I had read the posters Ms. O'Reilly posted in the gym about concussions. She grabbed my arm and said, Promise, promise you won't tell anyone!! Promise!” Reluctantly I promised," (www.classroomlaw.org).

Now I will talk about what it means to be a friend. Take a walk in Chris' shoes, think what he's thinking, look from his perspective. Mia has just told him information that pretty much decides his and her future, if he tells somebody and Mia doesn't play in the game and therefore doesn't get hurt and Mia finds out Chris told on her then Chris is in big trouble but if Chris doesn't tell like he did and Mia Gets badly injured then Mia is injured for life, what do you do? Comment down below and write what you would do and what you think a good friend would do. If it was me, I would attempt to make an anonymous phone call to her mom or coach, or maybe write an anonymous letter to her mom or coach. If Mia would find out, then good for her. If you are a good friend, I think you tell and hope that she will forgive you for it.

Mia's story from her moms perspective

Mia's mom is named Casey Perez She is a 42 year old single mom. She attended Oregon State University 20 years ago and married her college sweetheart. She started working as a graphic design artist, "It doesn't pay pay much but I love what I do."

Mia obtained a concussion in the spring of the year she got her last concussion playing high school soccer. Her coach, Tobin O'Reilly took her out right away and told Casey and Mia to go to the doctors to check for a concussion. It turned out she had a mild concussion. Then in the fall she started soccer again, this time with Rubicon Soccer Club. They soon started practices and learned that their old coach's dad had been diagnosed with cancer and would not be living past Christmas, so they had a new coach, Shannon Dempsey.

In early December the team signed up for a college showcase tournament,  Mia knew that this was her chance to be seen from top college coaches around the country from schools that included: UCLA, UPS, Stanford and even University of North Carolina and Duke. Casey made sure to work extra evening shifts the week of the tournament so she could come. She knew how important this opportunity was for Mia, she had to get a scholarship to attend any kind of top tier university.

Casey didn't get to talk to Mia a lot that week because of her work. She saw her for a few moments on Tuesday evening, Mia seemed quiet and stressed but Casey knew that she was feeling pressure from the tournament. On Wednesday Mia was already in bed when Casey got back from work, and on Thursday morning she didn't get to talk with Mia much. Thursday afternoon, when Casey got home, Mia still seemed stressed and so Casey told her to relax and play her game and everything would be fine. Mia kind of paused and looked like she was about to say something but then only said "I'm going up to bed". On Friday morning Mia slept through her alarm, and Casey had to wake her up for school which surprised Casey because Mia is usually up before her alarm. Casey asked Mia if she was getting sick but she said she was just tired from all the tests she'd had that week.

The game had already started when Casey got there, she noticed a lot of coaches on the sidelines, taking notes, some were pointing out Mia. Mia was out in her normal position of striker but Mia didn't seem to be running as hard a usual. It looked like she was getting sick and Casey hoped that she'd be able to shake it off and play well. With about 10 minutes left in the first half Mia tried to head the ball to score on a corner kick and it looked like she took an elbow to the head. Co-captain Megan Cheney came to check on her. The half ended with the two teams tied at 0.

Mia started the second half, She seemed to be better after the short halftime break. She had a amazing shot about 5 minutes into the second half but the goalkeeper made an amazing save to counter the shot. About 10 minutes later a teammate passed a great pass to Mia right outside the penalty box, and Mia started dribbling towards the goal but a defender came out of nowhere and made a hard tackle on Mia and Mia lost her balance and crashed on the ground, hitting her head on the ground hard. Casey waited for Mia to get up but she just lay there. The referee stopped play immediately and Coach Dempsey ran out onto the field. Mia wasn't moving and the next thing Casey knew, the field marshal and the athletic trainer ran out onto the field. Casey was in shock, then she ran onto the field. Coach Dempsey said to Casey "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry; I knew Mia wasn't feeling well, I can't believe she got hurt.” Casey soon realized that Mia was unconscious, then she heard them call the ambulance that was at the tournament to come and get Mia and take her to the ER. Casey went with them although she doesn't remember much of what went down. All Casey was thinking was, ‘please let her be ok, I can't lose her too.’ (All of the above is from www.classroomlaw.org )

Casey should have known about concussions because Mia had had a concussion in the spring. Also Tobin O'Reilly, Mia's high school coach sent home a concussion sheet about what to do if you or your child gets a concussion, and she could have looked up the website on the sheet of paper she sent home (www.cdc.gov).

Basic numbers and the basics of Mia's story

There are between an estimated 1.6 and 3.8 million sports related concussions in the US every year. High school students sustain an estimated 136,000 to 300,000 concussions. Athletes ages 16-19 sustain 29% of all sports- related concussions every year. A 2012 study of 20 high school sports reported that concussions accounted for 13.2% of all injuries in the sports studied, 66.6% of which occurred during competition and 33.4% during practice (www.momsteam.com).

Now that you have some statistics concussions I want you to think about those numbers for a second. Now I will tell you Mia’s story, Mia was a high school student at Rowe High School. In a college scholarship soccer game she got a concussion and was knocked unconscious for a while. This was over a year ago and she has still not recovered. She will probably not recover for a very long time, possibly the rest of her life. She had had three concussions that week. She had had one in practice on Monday, then one in the first half of the tournament and then 10-15 minutes into the second half she fell down hit her head on the ground and was knocked unconscious. I will be getting into the details and the story from other perspectives in my next few posts (www.classroomlawproject.org).

Concussions

1. For my 5 blogs I will be talking about concussions.
1. Basic numbers and the basics of Mia's story.
2. From her moms perspective
3. From her friends perspective and what it means to be a friend.
4. Personal experience.
5. What professionals say

Investigative blogging

­­­INVESTIGATIVE BLOG

Due-2/14/14

Choose a topic of your choice (school appropriate).  Use the methods outlined in class to research your topic of choice.  Each day, I would like for you to blog about this topic. 

·         Each blog should represent a subtopic of your topic and should be titled accordingly.  (i.e. Stegosaurus:  one blog might be about “diet,” while another blog discusses “child-rearing practices” or “dorsal plates,” etc.). 

§  Each blog should be organized and should include features expected in any well-written essay:  paragraphs, correct grammar and spelling, correct facts, etc.

§  Each blog should include at least TWO references cited in either APA or MLA format. 

·         You should write a minimum of five blogs.

§  While I value quality over quantity, the total length of your blogs combined should equal about 2.5-3 single-spaced pages.

·         Use the research methods taught in class.

§  .edu, and other reputable sites

§  CTRL+F to look for specific words

§ Purdue OWL= awesome citation resource - MLA or APA you choose
       https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

§  ALWAYS put quotation marks around quotes.

§  ALWAYS cite the cited!