High school concussions: North Carolina parents want power to return their child to a game, not the medical professionals

… bill in state legislature would allow that 

Bob and Lisa Gfeller still remember the dreadful day in August 2008 on which their son incurred a devastating head injury that caused his death two days later.

Matthew Gfeller, just 15, was a sophomore linebacker at R.J Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He was hit from the side in a helmet-to-helmet collision late in the fourth quarter of his first high school game.

He never recovered consciousness and died in a hospital shortly after that.

The parents did not sue over the play, but instead, started the Matthew Gfeller Foundation that attempts to help prevent and treat youth head injuries in sports. It resulted in the formation of the Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which has brought together elite doctors and researchers in the area of concussive studies.

Gfeller-Waller concussion law

In 2011, the state of North Carolina passed a law known as the Gfeller-Waller Concussion Awareness Act. It was compiled with the help of professionals like the the Brain Injury Association of North Carolina and the North Carolina Medical Society. It provided for mandatory concussion safety training for coaches and other personnel involved with athletics.

The bill was named for Matt and another N.C. high school athlete, Jaquan Waller. He was a JH Rose High School football player who died after suffering two head injuries in a week in 2008.

The law was compiled with the help of professionals like the Brain Injury Association of North Carolina and the North Carolina Medical Society. It provided for mandatory concussion safety training for coaches and other personnel involved with athletics.

The law is comprehensive and thorough. It requires that before an athlete who is diagnosed with a concussion is allowed to participate in sports, he or she must be "evaluated by and receive written clearance from

a licensed physician with training in concussion management;

a neuropsychologist with such training;

a licensed athletic trainer;

a physician's assistant; or

a nurse practitioner."

Parents complained to lawmakers

Apparently, parents complained that their boys -- or girls since concussions occur in other sports besides football - were not being allowed to return to the field after concussive effects because a trainer or other medical person determined that he should not.

The National Athletic Trainers Association is clear about the role of a trainer when he or she suspects a concussion:

"Any athlete suspected of sustaining a concussion should be immediately removed from participation and evaluated by a physician or designate."

So, as if politicians have not destroyed enough of American society, the North Carolina state legislature has proposed a bill that would allow parents, instead of professionals, to choose when their child can return to the game instead of the professionals.

House Bill 112, should it pass, would give that power to the parents. Whether or not it will pass the house and senate and then be signed by the governor is another matter.

The question is why would parents ever want to risk their child being injured in this way? This law is meant to protect their children, not to hurt the child. The vast majority of parents do not have the expertise to diagnose a concussion, much less how to treat one. This appears to be one of those bills from people who want to get the government off their backs.

Unfortunately, in this case, the government is looking out for the welfare of the kids. The medical people will restrict athletes from playing if there is a danger, sometimes even remote, of a severe injury. Still, this is in the best interests of the kids.