Doctor urges change in way we treat sport concussions
When it comes to concussion in sport, players lie because they do not want to come off, and team managers lie because they don’t want to take the player off — but the overriding message is “when in doubt, take them out”, an expert in sports medicine has warned.
Tadhg Crowley, medical officer to the Kilkenny senior hurling team, said that concussion was “a difficult thing to diagnose”, and had become very relevant in the context of young teams “who might not necessarily have a doctor present at a match”.
“I suppose the fear for parents of this generation is — is it actually safe to take part in games?” Dr Crowley said during a presentation on treating concussion at the Irish Medical Organisation AGM in Killarney.
Dr Crowley said he had missed concussion on a number of occasions, including during an All-Ireland final when the captain of the Kilkenny hurling team suffered a head injury but said he was fine. He gave a man of match performance, collected the cup, delivered the victory speech “and when I went to talk to him afterwards, he hadn’t a clue what was going on”.
Martin Daly said his son had suffered concussion during a match day where he had captained the team.
Someone came out of the dressing room and said: ‘Your son has no idea where he is.’ His recovery took approximately nine months,” Dr Daly said.
He said that, at a match where a child was out cold for two minutes, the father’s first question was “will he be fit for the Connacht final in two weeks time?”
Dr Crowley said helmets prevented head injuries, not concussion. He said he would “prefer if the GAA had a rule where they could take the player off” in the event of suspected concussion.
He said napping during the day was to be avoided. Instead, the injured party should stick to their normal sleep routine, get out for a walk, reduce “gadget time”, and have plenty fluids.
