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It's all in the head: Guide to handling head trauma

Feb 5, 2010 | Associated Press | CJ Online

Priest Holmes may or may not play in 2007. Even if he does step on the field, it remains to be seen if he'd be the Holmes of old, one of the league's top backs, after sitting out for two years with serious head, neck and spinal injuries.

Head injuries are common in football, though many don't understand the symptoms, consequences and treatment. Stormont-Vail's Darlene Whitlock, trauma outreach education and prevention coordinator, recently discussed head injuries:

ALL ABOUT PRIEST

WHITLOCK ON HOLMES: "Just think of how many injuries Priest Holmes has had that we don't even know about. Think about how many times he's had his bell rung and kept playing. That's head trauma. It might be with football players that after all those times of having their bell rung, it adds up, then you finally have a loss of consciousness. It'd be up to his neurosurgeon as to a suitable amount of time before he'd be ready to play again, but the fact that he was out for almost two years probably says a lot."

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Head injury symptoms for adults

Headaches or neck pain that won't go away

Trouble with such mental tasks as remembering, concentrating or decision making

Slow thinking, speaking, acting

Getting lost or confused

Feeling tired all of the time

Feeling tired or listless

Being irritable or cranky

Changes in eating

Changes in sleep pattern

Changes in performance at school

STAY DOWN, NOT GET UP

It happens at just about every football game. A player suffers and injury, usually getting his bell rung, and lay on the field motionless for a few seconds. He eventually gets up and stays in the game. Not the brightest of moves, according to Whitlock. "I always cringe when I see that," she said. "You should come out of the game and wait before you go back in. It's that ‘get-up' mentality, like with that skateboarder that fell 40 feet a few weeks ago and eventually got up." The skateboarder is professional Jake Brown.