Rugby death highlights need for education: brain injury experts

OTTAWA Rowan Stringer might still be alive if there were better awareness of the immediate dangers of concussions and repeated concussions, according to the president of the Brain Injury Association of Canada.

Stringer, 18, was the captain of the John McCrae Secondary School Rugby Team. The Barrhaven teen suffered trauma to the head after a hard tackle last Wednesday and later died in hospital. Her family has said that in the leadup to that final game, Stringer had complained of headaches following two other blows to the head.

Was this her first brain injury? That was my first thought, says Jeannette Holman-Price, president of the Brain Injury Association, a national organization representing people with brain injuries. My next thought was education, education education thats where were going to make a difference.

Holman-Price says theres a misunderstanding in the public conversation about concussion, a tendency to underplay the seriousness of the injury because it cant be seen from the outside, and doesnt involve blood or broken bones.

It needs to be shouted from the rooftops of every hospital and every sports league: concussion is a brain injury, says Holman-Price, whose son suffered a brain injury as a teenager. The media says someone has gone to hospital with just a concussion. Theres no such thing as just a concussion. You can die from a concussion. Our medical people and our sports people need to be able to recognize the severity of just what a concussion is.

Research shows that if you suffer some kind of violent impact to the head and have a headache, you certainly have suffered some type of injury to the brain and you need to take care of it, says Harry Zarins, executive director of the association.

Rowan should never have played that third game, says Zarins. From what we hear, the signs were there but through no fault of their own, the athlete didnt know about it, the parents werent informed about it and the coaches didnt pick up on it, so she continued to play.

The risk of treating concussions as minor injuries is that both the athlete and those around them tend to minimize the symptoms in order to continue playing, says Holman-Price,

Once youve had an impact or had a concussion, you need to stay out of play until all of the symptoms subside, says Holman-Price. We find a high number of doctors who say Take 2 weeks off and go back. No you need to go back to see your doctor first and wait until you are symptom-free. You cant go back to play when your brain is still damaged.

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Rugby death highlights need for education: brain injury experts