Hello ,
Don't miss this weeks feature article below on a new book about football and head trauma. Every parent should read it, especially if you have kids in sports.
Cutting-Edge Science on Head Injury |
Carla's 14-month-old son Corey fell off a swing in the back yard and died of a head injury. You want to think such a thing could never happen in your family, that it was a freak accident.
But in reading Carla Killough McClafferty's book subtitled CONCUSSION AND FOOTBALL'S MAKE-OR-BREAK MOMENT, it's clear the risk of death and brain damage is higher than I ever imagined. Especially for kids who play football, but also for kids who play soccer or ride bicycles, or swing on swings...
Corey suffered a minor bump on the head the day before he fell from the swing. After he died, the doctor told Carla that the two falls were a factor in her son's death. But she didn't really understand what had happened until some twenty-fiveyears later when she
researched this book.
"I studied what happens in the brain when one is a victim of Second Impact Syndrome or SIS. I understood in a different way exactly what happened in my son's brain in those minutes immediately following his fall."
"In the end, the research was much more personal than I thought it would be." FOURTH DOWN
AND INCHES tells of a Purdue University study of the Jefferson High football team in Lafayette, Indiana. The study showed brain impairment not just in the boys who suffered concussions during the season, but also in boys who suffered repeated hard knocks to the head, but never showed any signs of concussion. "At first we thought the scanner was broken," one researcher said, referring to the boys' functional MRI test results.
Carla says her book is not an attack on football. "In FOURTH DOWN, I present the facts, then leave the reader to draw their own conclusions. The point of the book is to look at the cutting edge research on concussions and head injuries and how these issues affect people. I address recognizing a player with a concussion and what the experts say they should do after a concussion. My hope is that the book will inform young athletes about the issues so they understand why they shouldn't ignore symptoms of
concussion." Along with the danger of SIS comes the specter of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy or CTE, which boxers commonly suffer and has recently been diagnosed in some pro football players. CTE
can be diagnosed only after death and has been discovered in the brains of men who died and donated their brains to science. CTE is irreversible and progressive brain damage that results from repetitive brain trauma. When a teenage rugby player died in 2006 after a concussion, his parents donated his brain for study. Scientists were surprised at what they
found--the first evidence of CTI suffered by a teenager. Delving into the personal side of the science of head injury was not easy for Carla, but she says, "The emotional cost of writing this book is worth it if even one athlete tells a coach that he might have a concussion and does not
return to play too soon, risking second impact syndrome." Read more FOURTH DOWN AND
INCHES: CONCUSSIONS AND FOOTBALL'S MAKE-OR-BREAK MOMENT by Carla Killough McClafferty, Starred review in Publishers Weekly, Junior Library Guild Selection, ALA YALSA Nominee List for 2014 Nonfiction Award. Recognizing concussion is key to keeping your child, and yourself, safe. Learn the symptoms of concussion from the Mayo Clinic here. A recent University of Washington study of girls soccer players from ages 11 to 14 found that 13 percent of those athletes suffered a concussion each season.
More than half of those concussed players continued playing after the injury...read more... New figures show soldiers' head trauma in Iraq and Afghanistan is under reported by 500-percent. Researchers fear the
issues stemming from traumatic brain injury may not be getting addressed. Read more on this from Stars and Stripes... Next week
I'll be in Northern California, would love to see you if I'm in your neighborhood. Tuesday, May 28, Robert Cooley Middle School in Roseville, CA Friday, May 30, National Convention of the Descendants of the American Defenders of Bataan & Corregidor, Hyatt Place, Downtown San Jose. Info here... I hope you've found this issue worth reading! I'd love to hear from you, and would also appreciate you forwarding this newsletter to someone you think might enjoy it.
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If you'd like to get your hands on a copy of PURE GRIT, here's the place! If you'd like a signed copy and I'm not coming to your neighborhood soon, let me know. I can send you a personally autographed book or a signed bookplate. To find out more about my books, how I help students, teacher and librarians, visit my
website at www.MaryCronkFarrell.com. My best, Mary Questions? Comments? Contact me at MaryCronkFarrell@gmail.com. Click here to subscribe to this
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