Hi, my name is Amy Wise. I have never used or participated in a blog before so i am still learning the in's and out's so bear with me. My son who is a high school senior for a very well know Independent School District decided to end his football career that was started during the third grade. He loved football and dreamed of playing on the very prestigous high school in our city. I cannot give exact locations simply because the football program has considerable power where we live. That is the back story. His freshman year he suffered two successive conccussions doing 'reeducation excises' (ie punishment) for another teammate's issue. He was never diagnosed with PCS until about four months from the initial injury. There was not a trainer nor coach who had ever been taught about this sydrome and the permanant damage it can do to a child/young adult. I am an ICU RN and found that it was up to me to educate them. My son suffered greatly for all of those months, verbal abuse from coaches, bullying from other players, taunting but somehow he kept his grades up with the help of a wonderful MD who specialzes in sports related brain injuries. He had my some on the road to recovery in a week, no pain, no mood swings, nothing until he went back to football. He was an outcast that started at the top, the coaches and worked its way down to the players. It did not matter how hard he worked it was never good enough. School policy changed after my son's $25,000 medical bill paid for by the district and suddenly the coaches and trainers knew what PCS was. Our MD now gives yearly lectures on the up and coming treatments for brain injury. Thankfully my son survivied his concussions with very little residual outcome...his temper is shorter...he gets depressed easily. The worst thing about all of this besides the physical injury is the emotional and mental abuse that he suffered at the hands of men who I trusted with his life. They, the coaches and trainers, do not like me and I do not care. What i care about is that they stripped my son's love of football, his dream of playing for this team and crushed any hopes of every playing.
I am huge advocate of PCS training and policies regarding these type of injuries in general. I would love to assist in any way that I can with the limitation that where I live not be included in the training since my son is still in high school. It is sad to say that a football program has that kind of clout, but ours does and I do not want it falling back on my son who has since left the team as of the end of his junior year. His former coaches called the injured players 'cancers' to the team and to treat a cancer, you cut it out. They kept their word.
