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).