December Meeting/Chris Harris' Death

Next Saturday, December 19th, is our final meeting for 2015!  Hard to believe.  As usual, we will meet in the Casey Room at Swedish Hospital's Cherry Hill campus from 12:45 pm to 3:00 pm.  Drop ins and kids are welcome.

Sad to report that Chris Harris has died.  Six years ago he was mistakenly identified by a King County Sheriff's deputy as a criminal and body slammed him, head first, into the wall of a local movie theater, causing severe brain damage.  Our group's thoughts and prayers have always been with Mr. Harris and his family, just as they are with his passing.  Unfortunately, while the medical examiner has reclassified Mr. Harris' death as a homicide, the Sheriff's deputy won't be facing any charges.  He was 'retrained' and cleared about four years ago of any wrong-doing.

As I stated in an earlier post, we have submitted our application for the 2016 UW Brain Awareness Open House event, set for March.  Hopefully, there will also be representatives from the UW's helmet program, a public private partnership, that is developing a helmet that better protects the brain during football.  According to local news reports, the helmet will hopefully be available in 2016!

It also wasn't lost on me that now news reports are recognizing the dangers with cheerleading and sports, other than football, that pose a risk of head injury.  I do realize that there are lots of activities that pose a risk to acquiring hydrocephalus, through brain injury, but raising awareness of this is important.

We will have a lot to discuss this month!

Heading The Ball

I saw an interview with Dr. Cantu recently, concerning the heading of balls in soccer.  While I was glad to see Dr. Cantu interviewed, in general, everyone else missed the point of the concern around this part of soccer.

It isn't that heading the ball itself is going to necessarily cause a concussion, but it DOES cause problems in the frontal lobe region, especially for children.  The brain isn't meant to be rocking back and forth in the skull.  The cerebral spinal fluid, which surrounds the brain, helps to protect the brain, but it doesn't make bruising or impacts to the brain itself impossible.  The inner part of the skull is rough and bumping the brain itself against it can cause bruising, bleeding and even short term damage that isn't readily apparent.  Some of that damage may be cumulatively damaging.

Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, neurosurgeon, has also been interviewed on the subject of concussions.  While it is quite possible for someone, specifically a child, to acquire a concussion through a bike accident, it is also possible to acquire a condition, like hydrocephalus, from such an accident.

There have been soccer players who have talked about 'safe' heading of the ball in soccer in the past, who have more recently altered their position, agreeing that there is no 'safe' heading of the ball, especially for kids who's brains are still developing.  There is still so much that is unknown about the brain and its development.

'Inside The Brain'

I watched most of 'Inside The Brain' on KOMO TV (Channel 4, Seattle) last night.  Very interesting.  It was produced in conjunction with Seattle Children's Hospital.

They spoke with a couple of the neurosurgeons at Children's, one of them is doing extensive research and development of a safer helmet for sports.  It was hard for me to watch even the dummy head being slammed, but well worth the emotional discomfort.

They also discussed a variety of areas of brain research that was quite interesting.  To think, this is still in the early stages & what will be found out in just the next few years!

Overall, it was time well spent.  Hoping for a follow up in the future.

It also provides a springboard for conversation at this month's meeting on the 19th.

SEPTEMBER MEETING--REMINDER

 

 

SEPTEMBER MEETING REMINDER

 

 

The September meeting will be on the 21st, from 12:45 pm to 3:00 pm in the Casey Conference Room at Swedish Hospital's Cherry Hill campus (17th & Jefferson).  Can't believe that September is here already!!  As always, we welcome drop ins and kids to our meeting.

 

 

I've been making a lot of outreach contacts, via email, the last week or so, with mixed results which I expected.  It is always disappointing to find so many not realizing that hydrocephalus is not 'just' a kids' illnes/condition.  Those kids grow up and live full lives--hello!!  Not to mention the families, caregivers and friends of those kids and the adults they become.

 

As I've said before, our focus is on living a full, rewarding life with hydrocephalus, not searching for 'the cure'.  There are simply so many causes that a one-size-fits-all 'cure' is never going to happen.  In a lot of cases, the key is prevention.  Even that isn't reasonable.  We are always going to have kids, and adults, taking chances and seeing concussions as 'no big deal', when it IS.  Those of us living with the condition know what a big deal it can be!  It isn't going to be reasonable to expect contact sports to not have head injuries/TBIs/concussions being a part of it.

 

I have a difficult time believing that those retired professional atheletes would have appreciated the potential problems/issues of their decision to be involved in their contact sports of choice.  For years now, we've been hearing brain researchers and those doctors dealing with the brain on a daily basis expressing concerns about 'heading the ball' in soccer.  Even if players hit the sweet spot, deficits in brain funtion have been found, however short or long term.

 

I'm not against kids taking part in sports and being active, but coaches and parents need to be aware of the negatives, as well as the positives.  In some states (like Washington) kids playing contact sports aren't allowed to re-enter the game if they've taken a shot to the head, until they have been cleared by a team physician.  That means more than a simple 'look 'em over', it means really testing them, to be sure that there isn't any subtle, like a brain bleed that can't be detected simply by looking at the kid.  Or expecting the kid to know whether he/she is healthy enough to play.  A person may not know they have a brain bleed or bruising of their brain.

 

We are also starting work on our table(s) for the UW's Brain Awareness Open House for 2014.  This year's event was a great success and, as always, we are on the lookout for 'stuff' to top last year's event.  Sponsorships for give away items (reuseable bags, caps, tee-shirts, etc.) are always something we are looking for.  We are a 501(c)(3) organization and have been for sometime, so donations are tax deductable.

 

I've also been looking at some possible fundraising ideas.  I'll be talking about them at the September meeting.  Most of what I've been doing for the last week is looking for resource lists to be added to.  Even those that don't list us on their websites are often willing to keep our information for future use or give to their members moving to the Washington state area.

 

Looking forward to the 21st!

 



NFL Settlement

The issue of the NFL settlement touches a nerve, in terms of those who have acquired this and other conditions through concussion and other head trauma, specifically related to sports.  I saw one interview where a former player was saying that if he had been warned, or at least told of the possible injuries he might have rethought playing.  I seriously doubt it.  Kids in pee-wee leagues and school programs simply don't appreciate the potential dangers of what they are doing.  They just want to play the game, pure and simple.  Even if you told them all of the dangers, they wouldn't think twice about suiting up and jumping into the frey.

Frankly, that applies to parents and doctors as well.  Both groups of adults sign off on having kids playing contact sports, with the dangers being perceived as not being as relivant to their kids as it really is.  They also don't think about what could happen decades down the road.

I've spoken out about research into the 'cure' for hydro,  I'm one of 'those people' who don't feel that I need fixing.  However, I DO think that there is a HUGE place for research into acquired hydrocephalus and understanding the impact of concussive injuries on the brain, in general as well as it relates to hydro.  Personally, I would have liked to have seen some $$ required to be dedicated to brain research and awareness for the kids, parents, doctors and coaches.

It was a big deal when it became illegal to keep a kid in play after a possible head injury in school contact sports.  It was a step in the right direction.  The only 'cure' for acquired cases of hydro is PREVENTION.  Doing everything possible to prevent hydro is going to lessen the number of cases--be that acquired through a brain bleed or through head trauma--be that in sports or on the battlefield.