Sports concussions: What price for glory?
Lakeville South girls hockey coach Natalie Darwitz talks with players during her summer hockey camp this year at her high school alma mater in Eagan. Photo by Rick Orndorf
Natalie Darwitz overcame a concussion to win three Olympic medals with the U.S. Women’s Hockey Team. Now the former Eagan High School hockey player has come full circle, working within the confines of new head-injury rules as a varsity coach.
by Tad Johnson
Thisweek Newspapers
When Eagan native Natalie Darwitz was playing with the U.S. Women’s Hockey Team during an exhibition game prior to the 2001 World Championships, she fired the puck down ice … then SLAM.
A member of Team Canada bowled her over, sending the 18-year-old Darwitz to the ice.
“The girl didn’t care too much about the puck, went for the body and ran me over,” said Darwitz, a three-time U.S. Olympic medal winner.
As one of the smallest players on the ice ever since she was a youngster, Darwitz had become accustomed to being slammed to the ice, and, like the fiery competitor she is, picking herself up and continuing playing.
“It was the sensation right afterward, remembering exactly what happened,” Darwitz said of the hit. “After that five-second span, that was the most eerie.”
She said she was foggy and dizzy but made it back to the bench at the end of her shift.
When it was time for her line to return to the ice she skated around with legs that were uneasy underneath her. She had problems maintaining focus.
Upon returning to the bench, coaches directed her to the team trainer, who saw that an eye test indicated she may have had a concussion.
“Then the trainer said: ‘I’m going to tell you five words that I want you to remember. I’m going to ask you what these five words are in 10 minutes, a half an hour, an hour.’ ”
For the first time in her career, which has included hundreds of games of youth, Eagan High School, University of Minnesota and international hockey, Darwitz sat out the rest of the game with her first and only documented concussion.
“I believe I probably had a lot more,” she said. “Ten or 15 years back concussions were not a popular discussion medically or as a topic in hockey. Do I believe I had other concussions? Yes.”
Now the topic of concussions in youth athletics is front and center in Minnesota and across America.
New state legislation directed the Department of Education and the Minnesota State High School League to craft a concussion awareness campaign, assemble training materials, and establish a strict treatment protocol – one involving complete rest and a gradual increase in activities – in treating concussions in young athletes.
New league rules require that an “appropriate health care professional” (a medical professional functioning within the levels of his or her medical education, medical training, and medical licensing) determine whether an athlete can return to the field of play.
Concussion baseline testing is mandatory for all high school athletes competing in contact sports, and parents must complete an MSHSL eligibility form which has them sign off as understanding concussion management protocols.
The MSHSL Sports Medicine Advisory Committee highly recommends that every student-athlete and parent successfully complete the “Heads Up: Concussion in High School Sports” course at www.cdc.gov/concussion.
The numbers
An estimated 1.6 million to 3.8 million sports- and recreation-related concussions occur in the United States each year, with 50,000 occurring in Minnesota, according to the Brain Injury Association of Minnesota. It is estimated that 1,000 Minnesota youths (ages 5 to 18) go to the hospital with sports-related concussions each year, according to a Minnesota Department of Health study.
The association says because sports-related concussions tend to be underreported, the number may be much higher.
Though Darwitz is no longer on the ice competing, she has been thrust into the issue as she has been entrusted with the care of a crew of high school girls hockey players as the new coach of the Lakeville South varsity team.
“You have to protect their brains. It is a very delicate topic,” Darwitz said. “For me, I can only tell them that I want them to be tough and know the difference between an injury and an owie.”
Natalie Darwitz of Eagan won three Olympic medals in her 12-plus years on the U.S. Women’s Hockey Team. Photo by Rick Orndorf
Decision is final
In the past, that difference was often determined by the athlete. The coach came up to you, asked you how you felt, and most young athletes – fearless, naive and willing to please – would say: “Put me in, coach.”
That is no longer the case.
The new power player on the sidelines at contests and practices is the health care professional, often a trainer. That person will determine whether an athlete returns to a game or practice after taking a hit. No matter what the coach, player or parents say, the determination is final.
Darwitz thinks the new rules with regard to concussion are positive, but is concerned about some aspects of their implementation.
She raises the issue that some health care professionals at league games will not be full-time trainers and as familiar with the players as the coaches.
She asks, too, if they will have enough experience to make a determination about a concussion in the midst of competition.
Darwitz, though, is confident of rule changes with regard to pre- and post-game concussion testing.
“That is a great tool,” she said. “It’s a 15-minute test. … But that is not something you can automatically test them with during a game.”
Darwitz was fortunate that her concussion was mild.
She said when she took her post-concussion test, her eye test still indicated she had a concussion and her reaction time was slow. At that point, she said the concussion played mind games on her, which led her to think about things like when she would play again or if she would play again.
But two days later, Darwitz passed the test and was cleared to play.
“I was totally fine,” she said. “I put it in the rearview mirror. It was behind me.”
She went on to play in three Olympics (earning two silver medals and a bronze) and eight International Ice Hockey Federation world championships and was a captain of Team USA from 2007 to 2010.
One thing that is for certain is that concussions will still happen in high school sports. All of the protocols, new safety equipment, education and testing won’t prevent players from experiencing the collisions that result in concussions.
But now players, parents, coaches and trainers are better equipped and aware of how to keep young athletes safe after a concussion has occurred.
Tad Johnson is at editor.thisweek@ecm-inc.com. A longer version of this story appears in Focus, a south-of-the-river lifestyle magazine, on newsstands now.
