Monday, December 7, 2009

Concussions

Unfortunately, I have been at one remove from several major accidents involving concussion over the past couple of years. (Two of these involved flukey bicycle accidents, so wear your helmets, people, even if for some reason you think it's uncool to do so. Spend some money on a comfortable and super hip helmet, and think of it as a gift to future generations, who, as small impressionable children, will adore your great look from afar.) I used to think that concussions were serious in the moment, but then you 'woke up' from them, so to speak and went on with your life. I now understand that concussions can have a more lasting effect, and that it isn't always clear, at least to the casual observer, what is just temporary and what is long term or permanent.

For this reason, I was especially interested in the recent 60 Minutes segment on professional athletes, concussion and memory loss.

I'm sure that helmets for motorcyclists, cyclists and basically anyone who rides around on things with wheels and no windows will eventually become de rigueur. But a designing genius may well come up with a helmet that everyone thinks is great to wear, and thus prevent many unnecessary accidents from keeping those hazardous slips on the ice, inadvertent walking in front of buses, and, well, general clumsiness from becoming the life altering accidents they could be.

2 comments:

  1. Suppose I should say hello since that v word thing is hyllo.

    Yep, those sports and activities that often use gravity to help gather momentum are dangerous. My son plays high school sports and kids seem always to be injured from skiing, falling off of a bicycle, crashing their skate board and the like. When they are wearing their equipment they generally seem to do OK except for an occasional sprained joint.

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  2. Oh, hyllo, then. Thanks for dropping by.

    My friend's mother went up to Oregon to visit a friend and while there, took a trial ride around the block on her friend's bike. Somehow in the space of this short and not awfully fast journey, she managed to go head first over the handlebars. She ended up in the hospital with brain swelling and the whole bit. She's recovered, but it took awhile and was not without its hitches.

    I sometimes find it ironic when parents very carefully put bike helmets on their kids but fail to put one on their own. You don't grow more invincible as you get older--in fact, it's probably the reverse.

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