lePlayer was in Critical Condition due to Brain Injury
Ryne Dougherty a football player for Montclair High School in New Jersey was in critical condition and will be having a hard time of recovering after sustaining a brain hemorrhage during a game one October Monday, according to school officials.
Being the junior linebacker, Ryne Dougherty had been reportedly collapsed after making a tackle during a junior varsity game against Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J. Dougherty was then rushed to the trauma center at the Hackensack University Medical Center, wherein doctors performed surgery.
Montclair High School’s interim principal told The Star-Leger of Newark that Dougherty had sustained a concussion last September 18, after having tackled a player during their practice, and right after that, he did a CT scan before a doctor has cleared him to get back and play.
It has already been known to everyone that CT scans are not sensitive enough to diagnose concussions, however it is not known either as to what other tests did Dougherty has undergone before he was cleared for a return.
Within the last three months, it has been reported that two teenagers died in New Jersey during football activities. One of them is the 17 year old who died in August due to bleeding in the brain after he was tackled during a practice. The other one is the 13-year-old player who died at the same month because of an undetected heart condition.
The National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury of the University of North Carolina said that in 2007, three high school players in the United States have died because of head injuries sustained while playing football, and during that year, there were about 1.8 million teenagers played football in the United States.
Montclair board of Education website released a statement that Dougherty fell to the ground after the tackle; he then stood up briefly, and then fell down again. According to the school district, the tackle did not involve any above the neck contact between any of the players. Dougherty’s collapsed has been accounted for based on the fans, coached and teammates’ reports.
In the past few years, the health and safety conditions of the children and teenagers that played football are being questioned, particularly about the issue of concussions. This issue had raised concerns about the preparedness of school personnel to deal with it. The address the said concern, programs have been created and expanded in order to educate players, coaches and trainers about the nature of the said injuries. Program used by Montclair and Don Bosco is the ImPACT neurological testing program – a computer based testing protocol that will help people in determining as to whether the player has recovered from a concussion.
According to the associate director of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association Bob Baly that, his organization is conduction an annual concussion workshop for trainers and that, a medical advisory committee are meeting three times a year to have a thorough discussion about the issue.