Changing the concussion culture

There’s no such thing as a bell-ringer

A recent CDC report recently showed that more than two million youth suffered concussions in 2013.

And that might be on the low side.

Athletes won’t tell coaches and trainers they’re hurt, so they can keep playing. And coaches don’t recognize that an athlete needs to come out.

“We’re trying to get rid of the verbiage of a bell ringer,” Gundersen Health System lead athletic trainer Joe LaMere said. “This is a serious injury and it can have a long potential problems with these kids. 

“We don’t really know. We’re starting to see that in the NFL.”

New testing is being used at schools all over the area to diagnose concussions.

“We have 32 schools that we provide athletic training service to the area,” LaMere said. “A little over 20 of them now are doing the cognitive testing. We can test them to see if they return back to their baseline that they had before the injury.”

LaMere says an athlete that suffers a concussion can have symptoms for 10-14 days, ranging from headaches to sensitivity to light to behavior changes.

“I do see that we are screening a lot better and I think that we are more aware of them,” LaMere said. “Because of being aware of that, we really see the potential seriousness of concussions.”