I was a football student manager from 6th grade until I graduated high school so I saw my fair share of concussions but what I had never seen was a delayed concussion that happened days after the actual head trauma happened, until it happened to my cousin. That days practice started out like any other, with drills and running plays but throughout practice everyone kept asking where my cousin was and why he wasn’t at practice. The answer was that I didn’t know but not too much longer after we saw him coming down the hill but there was something off about him. His jersey was on backwards and he was having a hard time walking. When he got to the field he ran to the wrong group and continuously asked where the linemen where even after our coaches told him multiple times. When he finally got to the linemen group, where I was, he was in really bad shape. He could barely stand or talk and his coordination was extremely poor. Now in his past he had a history of drug use so everyone thought there was a chance he was high and that was why he was acting strange. Because of this thought and me being his cousin, everyone insisted that I take him home before the coaches realized that he might be high. So I did just that! I pulled him aside and, in my best stealth mode, started walking him up the hill back to the locker rooms. However, with the state he was in and his size (me=5’1″, 125 lbs, him= 6’2″, 275 lbs) carrying him up the hill was really hard. I knew something was really wrong when he looked down and asked why was the ground covered in ice cubes….there was no ice it was the grass. Luckily while walking with him a friend of ours saw us and offered to take him home. About 30 minutes later my mother called and said they were taking him to the hospital because they couldn’t come up with any reason why he was acting the way he was.
At the hospital, the ER doctor told us he was suffering from a closed head injury but when the neurologist came to see him he told us my cousin had a severe concussion. This was odd to us because we knew he hadn’t suffered a head injury in the few days preceding the incident. But then my cousin remembered that at our last game, almost a full week before, he had a helmet to helmet collision with a player on the other team.
But the real question is what’s the difference between a closed head injury and a concussion?
There really isn’t a difference. A concussion is thought to be a form of a closed head injury along with brain contusions or bruising of the brain, intracranial hematomas or bleeding in the brain after being forced against the inside of the skull, and diffuse axonal injuries or damage to nerves in the brain. Closed head injuries are any injury to the head that does not penetrate the skull. They are usually caused by blows to the head because of traffic accidents, fall, assaults, or sports injuries.
Definitions of concussions themselves vary but according to the Mayo Clinic, concussions are any head injury that temporarily affects normal brain functions. Effects are usually temporary but can sometimes cause permanent problems. Most concussions are mild and do not result in loss of consciousness but this is not always the case. People suffering from a concussion can display immediate symptoms such as headaches, nausea, dizziness, slurred speech and vomiting. They can also be confused, have difficulty with coordination and difficulty with concentration. In some cases, like my cousins case, symptoms do not show up for hours or even days after the incident.
http://www.allabouttbi.com/closed-head-injury/
"Delayed Concussions"
