Repeated Brain Concussion Can Lead To Disability – Part 1 of 3
Repeated Brain Concussion Can Lead To Disability. After taking a dense hit to the head during a football game, an Indiana high school student suffered severe headaches for the next three days. Following a head for CT scan that was normal, his doctor told him to wait to go back on the field until he felt better. But the boy returned to practice, where he suffered a devastating knowledge injury called second impact syndrome. More than six years later, Cody Lehe, now 23, is mostly wheelchair-bound and struggles with diminished mental capacity.
Yet he’s fortunate to be alive: Second affect syndrome is fatal in about 85 percent of cases. “It’s a unique syndrome of brain injury that appears in high school and younger athletes when they have a mild concussion, and then have a number two head impact before they’re over the symptoms of their first impact. This leads to massive brain swelling almost immediately,” said Dr Michael Turner, a neurosurgeon at Goodman Campbell Brain and Spine at the Indiana University School of Medicine, and co-author of a immature report on Cody’s case, published Jan. 1 in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics.
The case study illustrates why it’s so impressive to prevent a second impact and give a young brain the chance to rest and recover, another expert said. “Second impact syndrome is a very rare phenomenon. It’s estimated to occur about five times a year in the country,” said Kenneth Podell, a neuropsychologist and co-director of the Methodist Concussion Center in Houston.