Brigitte Peterson

Hello Lincoln County community. My name is Brigitte Peterson. I have met many of you in the past couple of months as Dr. Will Katschke’s student physician’s assistant.

A little background on me: I grew up in Hawthorne, Nev. I’m currently attending the University of Washington’s MEDEX program and will finish with my master’s degree in clinical health sciences in August.

Part of our curriculum requires that we complete a community education project, but I would like to say that this requirement feels less like an assignment and more like a privilege. I have received such a warm and generous welcome from the people it makes writing this enjoyable. In order to reach the outlying communities, I thought an article would be the most effective means of communication.

The topic I chose is traumatic brain injury secondary impact syndrome.

These are a lot of fancy words meaning a concussion closely followed by a second hit, which can be devastating, if not deadly. Most of these concussions occur during sporting activities, both contact and non-contact.

Many people think that a concussion is when a person is knocked unconscious. Concussion symptoms range from confusion, headache, nausea/vomiting, blurred vision, short-term memory loss (they don’t remember the injury or event before or after the impact), or repeating the same phrase over and over, and can be as simple as someone who just isn’t acting right after taking a hit, soft or hard.

Athletes have told us about the ways in which concussions not only ended their careers, but have cost them their quality of life. One is Ted Johnson, former lineman of the New England Patriots. In his career he suffered multiple concussions, but it was a back-to-back concussions that cost him his career. He now suffers from depression, sleep disorders and fatigue.

Some states are even creating laws to decrease the number of these incidents in their communities. Washington is one of these with its Zackery Lystedt’s Law, named after a young football player who suffered a serious brain injury during a game.

The medical field has begun to look at the brains of dead athletes who range in age from older than 50 to those in their teens, and they are finding minimal to devastating changes within these subjects that failed to be detected by CT scans or MRIs.

Many athletic programs now are moving toward preseason cognitive testing. These tests evaluate athletes before the season begins (this will be used as their baseline) and are easily accessed on the Internet. Cost varies.

If the athlete sustains a concussion or is not “acting themselves” after an incident, he must undergo the testing again before he can return to play. The two sets of tests (baseline and current) will be compared. If there is even a slight difference, the player is to be held from all sports until he is back to his baseline. If the player does not attain his baseline, he does not return to sports within a school or professional program.

This does not, and will not, take the place of an exam by a licensed physician. It’s suggested the tests be performed in conjunction with a medical exam.

Problems with the cognitive method of testing occur when some students don’t take it seriously. Sometimes, students will intentionally attain a lower test score so they will still be able to play even if they sustain a concussion.

My reason for choosing this topic is athletics play such a huge role in small communities such Lincoln County. I have attended several football and basketball games during my short stay here. Whether you have children that play sports, or know someone who is playing sports, you celebrate their wins, mourn their losses and always hope for their safety.

I hope that by reading this article you understand some of the rising concerns surrounding concussions. If you would like more information or articles pertaining to this subject, please contact me at bp3673@u.washington.edu.

Brigitte Peterson is a physician assistant from the University of Washington, and has been attending the MEDEX program for the last year, working to obtain her master’s degree in clinical health sciences.