Nashville, Tenn.- Doctors from
Vanderbilt Children's Hospital are treating more patients with sports related
injuries.
While it spans from heat related injuries to sprains and
strains, doctors are seeing the largest increase in the number of student athletes
getting concussions. The athletes are not just playing football and soccer.
Rebekah Faulkner couldn't
imagine her life without sports. At 16, she plays on her high school's varsity
basketball team.
"It was our third game of
the day," she remembers, "we had lost our first one."
In June, just minutes after
being put into the game, she dove for a loose ball and collided with a player
on the other team who was trying to do the same.
Faulkner said the pain was
instant, "like someone had just like taken something…like slamming it at my
head like over and over. It was the worst headache I've ever had."
Faulkner had a concussion.
"She
developed this speech difficulty in combination with it. She had significant
memory loss both before and after," Dr. Alex Diamond with Vanderbilt Sports
Medicine said.
In the first year of
Vanderbilt's Sports Concussion Center, Dr. Diamond treated 142 patients. In the
year prior to opening, Dr. Diamond saw fewer than 10 cases.
"The
number of concussions out there are probably the same, but yes we are seeing a
significant amount more of them because of the increase recognition and
response to them. Which is a good thing," he said.
In three months Faulkner has
come a long way. Initially she had to live in darkness.
"No
TV, no radio, no cell phones nothing just complete silence and dark," her
mother Rene Faulkner said, "…just until she could get to where she wasn't
having the headaches that were so bad."
She worked hard with the
hope of being able to get back on the court. On Wednesday, she finally got the
news she had been waiting for. Dr. Diamond released her to play basketball.
Just in time for the season to start.
"I'm
ready to start playing again," Rebekah Faulkner said. But this time she has
some reservations. "I'm scared I'll get another one and I'll be out again."
For more information on symptoms and treatment visit
Vanderbilt's Sports Concussion Center
http://www.vanderbilthealth.com/orthopaedics/33536
