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General Concussion thread

I read that this morning. Horrible read, he's only 43 and ought to have decades of good quality life ahead of him. Incredibly tough for him, arguably even harder for those around him.
 
I consider dementia as the single most inhumane thing we can subject sportsmen to and the single most unkind thing we can force people to endure in their last months and years. It is not simply the loss of your memory, your personality and your dignity. It can be even worse than those terrors.

It is like with drunks. You get good drunks and you get bad drunks. With dementia you get those whose every interaction and experience can be neutral to positive, living in a bizarre rose tinted bubble of complete ignorance. But you also get those who are terrified, confused and frankly traumatised in every waking moment.

I had a great grandfather who spent his days terrified of going to bed because he felt he was experiencing his bed taking off and flying around and he was terrified of falling off the side of the bed to his death. His days were spent fixated in quiet dread on what would await him that night.

Damaged minds break in the most unpredictable of ways and whatever sport (and society) can do to help prevent this sort of needless suffering should be the absolute priority. What a horrible horrible experience for Thompson and his family. Hopefully his speaking out on the matter helps persuade a few in the UK to consider how we help prevent dementia and what are humane options for terminal dementia sufferers.
 
My eldest brother had to give up playing in the '70's whilst still at school. The Drs said he had suffered such severe concussion it was not safe for him to continue.
 
The_Blindside said:
www.theguardian.com

England under-20s doctor gets four-week ban after head injury furore

Dr Nigel Rayner’s actions during England under-20s’ Six Nations match against Italy were judged to be ‘grave’ and ‘unacceptable’
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
Click to expand...

I can see why he was desperate for England to not be nilled, but seriously yes, atrocious conduct from a medical professional. If he is going to be like that for a wee u20 knockabout what on earth is his judgement going to be like if he was ever employed by a pro club or national side.
 
TRF_Olyy said:
Should be banned from the sport for life tbh, that's just unacceptable
Click to expand...
Agreed. I would hope that his contract with England U20 has been terminated as a result of his gross misconduct and that no other sporting body would consider employing him. I hope his professional body is investigating this. Steph Brannan was (initially) struck off for faking injuries, failing to provide proper treatment and exposing a patient to the unnecessary risk of further harm, this seems a lot more serious to me.
 
Groundhog said:
Long story short he was given a test on pitchside and it was deemed he wasn't fit to continue but then he went through another test by independent doctors a few hours later, passed, then another test later. Should be all good although I don't massively want him to start.
Click to expand...
This new law died quicker than the straight scrum feed law. There'll be a couple of doctors in NZ with a spring in their step this weekend. I thought the whole point of the law is that several days after a head hit you can't medically detect the consequences of said hit or the danger of compounding it with a subsequent hit. So you introduce a mandatory period of no contact to reduce the chances of lasting damage. Seems like a farce, but happy to be corrected.
 
So what's that, 5 players ruled out of the Aus (2) v Eng (3) series in just 2 games with concussion?

In NZ, there was the Loughman incident against the Māori, Ringrose has been concussed, Sexton's had a failed HIA, while Whitelock's been stood down. Haven't really watched too much else but I know that Francis has been sent home, while George North continues to play despite past multiple concussions.

I don't know how this stacks up statistically and it's good that positive action is (usually) quickly taken. But it's still not a good look.
 
Feels like teams are going to start needing bigger squads to enable them to stand down players when needed.
 

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