Published on December 09, 2011

Keeping Athletes Safe With Genesis Concussion Management

In all his years playing football, Garrett Miner had never suffered a head injury despite routine helmet-to-helmet contact.

When he went to Genesis Concussion Management for a baseline screening in October, the Moline High School quarterback figured it was an unnecessary precaution. He went at his parents’ urging.

“I thought, ‘This is probably a waste of time. It’s my senior year. I’ve never had a concussion before. It’s never going to happen to me,’“ Garrett, 17, says. “Then a week later, I got hit hard in the last game of the regular season.”

Sitting in the bleachers at the time, his parents, Stefani and Danny Miner, saw the opposing team player break through the line and knock their son down flat. “You could see that Garrett got hit hard. You could hear the gasp of the crowd. He didn’t get up right away,” his mother says.

Garrett was immediately removed from play. He returned in the second half, only when traditional testing on the sidelines determined him fit to play.

“From all appearances, Garrett was fine,” Stefani Miner says. “He had no nausea or dizziness. He wasn’t experiencing any of the outward traditional symptoms of concussion.”

Concussion support

The next day, however, Garrett’s parents decided to make sure there wasn’t any hidden injury. They talked to neighbor Mike Owens, a speech pathologist at Genesis Concussion Management, and arranged for their son to be tested again.

The new tests would be compared with Garrett’s pre-injury tests to determine if his balance and cognitive function had decreased from the blow to the head.

Garrett, thinking he felt good a couple of days after the game, was surprised to learn the tests seemed a little harder the second time around. He excels in school and is ranked 9th in his class.

“We tested Garrett again after his injury, and the tests showed he still had delayed reaction times. Overall, he was cognitively 15 percent below what he was before,” Owens says. “His psychomotor speed, executive function, simple reaction time and simple choice reaction time were impaired. His balance, however, was in the normal range.”

Uncovering even subtle differences in brain function is extremely important. The brain needs time to heal from a concussion, even a mild one.

A concussion is a brain injury caused by a blow to the head or body that causes the brain to move rapidly inside the skull. A concussion can show up right after the injury, or may not appear or be noticed until days or weeks after the injury.

“Athletes who return to play before the brain has time to heal are at risk of more serious injury and causing permanent damage,” Owens explains.

Time to heal

After consulting with his doctor, Garrett took a break from football practice and received guidelines on how to rest his brain. He still did homework, but he had to limit his TV time and avoid listening to music with headphones over the next two days.

“His doctor, his coach, Genesis Concussion Management...everyone worked together,” Garrett’s mother says. “No one wanted Garrett to play if he was injured. Once you learn more about concussions, there’s really no other decision to make. It’s his brain.”

His parents took Garrett to Genesis Concussion Management for a baseline screening after a teammate had to stop playing contact sports because of lingering symptoms from a couple of concussions received during his high school football career. That awakened them to the seriousness of concussions.

With a play-off game looming that Saturday, Garrett tested a second time at Genesis Concussion Management. His brain function results had significantly improved, and it was decided he could play.

“I think athletes should definitely get a baseline screening,” says Garrett. “I never thought a concussion would happen to me.”

His mother agrees: “You don’t mess around with a brain injury. If Garrett hadn’t had a baseline screening, we wouldn’t have had a reference point to know that his brain was injured and needed time to heal. It’s important for everyone who plays sports to protect themselves.”

Genesis Concussion Management has a team of physical therapists, speech therapists, primary care physicians and physiatrists to work with athletes, school athletic trainers, coaches and parents to provide the best diagnostic tools and treatment plans.

Located on the Genesis, Illini Campus in Silvis and on the Genesis, West Central Park campus in Davenport, Genesis Concussion Management follows the current best practice recommendations for the NCAA and NATA utilizing a combination of three elements: symptom review, cognitive processing and objective balance assessments.

The NeuroCom® Balance Master uses technology developed by NASA to measure an individual’s balance.

The athlete stands on a platform that measures balance as both the platform and walls move.

Concussion Vital Signs ® is a web-based assessment used to establish an individual’s “normal” neurocognitive baseline so health professionals have a reference point they can use to measure an athlete’s skills at solving problems, decision-making, learning, remembering and concentrating after injury.

Learn more

For more information, call the Silvis location at (309) 281-4740, or the Davenport location at (563) 421-1470.