Birmingham, Ala. (WIAT) - Big hits and big lifts get much praise in these sports. They can also bring serious injury.
"Amnesia, forgetfulness, disorientation, blurred vision, uh head aches...these are all signs of fairly subtle concussions and a the child, the athlete doesn't necessarily have to be blacked out with a coach escorting them to the car after practice to have had a concussion," says orthopedic surgeon Dr. Geoffrey Connor.
32 states, including Alabama now have laws requiring education for coaches, athletes, trainers and parents about head trauma.
Chris Nowinski, former Harvard defensive tackle and WWE wrestler is one former athlete who recently spoke to a group during an advance concussion training at D1 Birmingham.
Without the knowledge he has today, at the time he was unaware when he received his first concussion after taking an elbow to the face from Bubba Ray Dudley during a tag team match.
"I lied essentially about these symptoms for 5 weeks. where everyday if I wasn't wrestling I'd go to the gym, and I'd go to the gym and I'd last 5 minutes before I'd feel nauseous and I'd have to stop but I didn't take that as evidence as a brain injury I took that as evidence that my goal tomorrow is gotta be to make it to 10 minutes. Because that's the mentality we have as athletes."
Several concussions later, Nowinski stopped wrestling after acting out a very violent dream while in bed with his girlfriend.
"I literally jumped head first into the wall, through the night stand. I didn't even wake up when I hit the ground and so about 30 seconds later I was on my hands and knees surrounded by this carnage with her screaming at me and that freaked me out so much that I was like alright, I'm not going to wrestle again until I figure out what's wrong with my brain and I never wrestled again because what I found out was that I probably should never get hit in the head again."
Nowinski is now a brain injury expert.
He is the co-founder and president of the Sports Legacy Institute (SLI), a non-profit organization dedicated to solve the sports concussion crisis, and serves as a co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) at Boston University School of Medicine. He also serves on the National Football League Players Association Mackey/White TBI Research Committee and on the board of directors of the Brain Injury Association of America.
