Concussion testing? It’s a no-brainer
Belleville minor hockey takes pioneering role with mandatory program
By Paul Svoboda
Posted 4 hours ago
John Chehade hit the quarterback so hard, he broke the guy’s sternum. And Chehade suffered a concussion — or, in the football vernacular, he got his bell rung.
“I got up and I couldn’t see,” said Chehade, who in 2006 was a veteran defender for the University of Western Ontario Mustangs football team.
“I kept checking my chinstrap, because something felt loose,” said Chehade. “Well, it wasn’t my chinstrap, it was my brain. My brain was loose.”
On the bench as the Mustangs offence took over, Chehade tried to straighten himself out. But there was no way he was telling the coach he was hurt. He didn’t want to miss a play.
“I felt dizzy, I wanted to puke,” said Chehade. “Then, the D went back out on the field and I was late getting back out there and the coach was yelling at me. Looking back, I should’ve said something. But I wanted to finish the game.
“Everybody knew something was wrong. I didn’t go out and party or celebrate with the team after the game. I just went home and went to bed.”
Chehade was lucky. He recovered and didn’t suffer any lingering damage from his concussion.
Today, he wants to make sure children are better prepared than he was to deal with a potential head injury. He wants to make sure their parents and coaches are aware of the potentially devastating effects of a sports-related brain injury and what they can do to recognize, manage and treat the problem.
That’s why Chehade, now the pointman in Ontario for Clinical Medicine Research Group (CMRG), was in Belleville Friday to visit, once again, with minor hockey officials and medical care-givers. And that’s why, as reported in The Intelligencer earlier this week, the Belleville Minor Hockey Association announced that, starting this season, all of its rep team players from minor peewee and up will be required to undergo mandatory baseline concussion testing before Oct. 1.
Baseline testing, which takes about 20 minutes on a home computer and is something like playing a video game, measures neurocognitive brain functions. It provides a starting point for measuring potential concussions and helps dictate any subsequent recovery procedures that might be required.
The BMHA, through Chehade’s London-based company, has lined up a group of local medical professionals — none of whom, by the way, will make any extra money doing this — to help monitor and manage the program and any followup required.
Chehade says CMRG is “the Canadian sister company” of the Pittsburgh-based ImPACT program that got the whole thing started in the first place. ImPACT handles baseline concussion testing for the NHL, NFL, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer while CMRG looks after the CFL.
In Ontario, Belleville joins many larger centres — London, Kitchener, Oakville, Hamilton, Guelph and Barrie among them — in adopting mandatory baseline testing for at least the rep segment of its minor hockey system.
“These groups are pioneers and are really sparking a movement across Canada,” says Chehade. “Belleville minor hockey should be commended. They’ve been working on it here for a couple of years now with their followup medical network.
“There are a lot of people in this community who are aware of the problem and want to do something about it.”
At roughly $25 per child, Chehade suggests baseline testing is a bargain. Especially when it could, in extreme cases, be the difference between life and death.
“CTs, MRIs, CAT scans — they only pick up physical damage,” says Chehade. “They don’t pick up what a concussion does. You can’t measure it unless you do neurocognitive tests.
“And the trouble is, with adolescents, if the concussion is not treated properly or recognized or managed, and you go back to playing your sport too early, you can be susceptible to another concussion from less force.”
The ground-breaking studies leading to the ImPACT program were conducted at the University of Pittsburgh at the behest of the ownership of the city’s NHL club, the Penguins, who several years ago had become concerned about concussions, said Chehade. Recently, stories have surfaced across the U.S. about post-concussion syndrome in retired NFL players and professional wrestlers, and the Penguins themselves are currently dealing with the post-concussion treatment of their superstar captain, Sidney Crosby.
“We really need to educate parents and get the message out,” said Chehade. “In any sport that has the potential for concussions, you need a baseline test.”
While CMRG’s largest Canadian markets right now are hockey and downhill skiing, Chehade expects other sports to follow. Like football.
“We haven’t had a minor football program mandated yet, which boggles my mind,” says Chehade, a former linebacker. “I know there’s a cost issue, but this isn’t a huge money-maker for our company. We’re passionate about this. And for 25 bucks a kid, for crying out loud, we wouldn’t leave any kid hanging out to dry.
“If a high school football coach wanted to get his team tested and some kids couldn’t afford it, we’d find the funding for it.”
As a player, Chehade was lucky. He recovered from his concussion. Somebody else may not have been as fortunate.
But, with baseline testing, if a Junior Bull gets his bell rung in a rep hockey contest next winter, a potential concussion will be recognized, treated and managed. Properly, with nothing left to chance.
“Hey, these kids aren’t making millions of dollars playing hockey,” says Chehade. “Their futures are at stake here.”
And, they are futures worth ensuring.
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