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Home IDEAPlaybook ATHLETE INSIGHT: Off The Ice ForGood A Former Hockey Player's Lesson In Concussion Awareness BY NATHAN LAFAYETTE lessons that I can impart upon my children. I can teach them to play with gusto and verve and give their all every time they are part of a game or match. I can explain the significance of fair play and the joy of being part of a team that joins together for one common goal. And, I can show them how safety, taking care of themselves, and sitting out a game or competition when they have been hurt are more important than winning. You see, I know firsthand how "toughing it out" when you are really hurt and "getting right back in there for the good of the team" is the wrong approach. I know how "having your bell rung" and being dizzy and dazed are serious conditions and can change you forever. I know this because repeated concussions ended my career as a professional hockey player 12 years ago when I was just 26 years old. And, while that is certainly very trau- matic as an adult, keep in mind that the consequences of concussions in youth sports are even direr. As My story is not unique for those in the professional sports world, but the father of a son and daughter who are both active in sports, there are many A concussion is not just a "knock in the head," as it used to be thought. It is a brain injury that can impact a person's physical health and cognitive abilities for years to come. certainly it was life altering. I played for several teams during my years in the NHL—St. Louis Blues, Vancouver Canucks, New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings. Back then, in the early 1990s, team doctors couldn't always determine when a hockey player had suffered a concussion. The protocols, baseline testing and overall awareness of the danger of concussions that we see today just didn't exist. If the doc- tors couldn't always properly identify if a concussion occurred or not, then athletes like myself who didn't have a medical background certainly wouldn't know if they had a serious brain injury. While playing for the Los Angeles Kings, I suffered what I believe now were two concussions during one game. After the first time I was hit, I was moving slowly and was just not feeling like myself. But, I stayed in the game. After the second blow, I felt even more sluggish, and my short-term memory had lapsed a bit. I was also extremely sensitive to light and sound—classic concussion symptoms. Over the next week or so after that game, I realized that I wasn't going to shake my injury off so easily. Even something as basic for an athlete as getting on an exercise bike caused me to become physically ill. I stayed off the ice for six weeks, giving myself some time to recuperate. But, I knew that something was wrong. I sustained another concussion in the next season, and realized that I still had not fully recovered from the previous incidents. I went through 18 months of being unable to tolerate loud noises or light and feeling like I had a 24-hour-a- day migraine headache. It was, at that point, that the team doctor said that I was no longer cleared to play hockey. Had doctors known what they know today, had the first blow the previous year been identified as a concussion, and had I been removed from the game after that very first concussion, it might have made all the difference in my career—not to mention the uncertainty "…I know firsthand how 'toughing it out' when you are really hurt and 'getting right back in there for the good of the team' is the wrong approach." 14 July 2012 www.sportseventsmagazine.com Subscribe Contact S.P.O.R.T.S. 2012 ▼