• Contact Us
  • Events calendar
Entering Swellesley
Pinnacle, Wellesley

The Swellesley Report

More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

  • Advertise
  • Contribute
  • Eat
  • Wellesley Square
  • School
  • Top 10 things to do
  • Embracing diversity
  • Charities/Community
  • Arts
  • Camp
  • Kids
  • Events
  • About us
  • Subscribe
  • Natick Report
  • COVID-19
  • Letters to the Editor
Needham Bank, Wellesley
Boston Sports Institute, Wellesley

Wellesley high student spearheads concussion discussion

February 10, 2013 by admin Leave a Comment

By Cassidy Swanson

With concern and awareness for sports-related concussions at an all-time high, Wellesley parents and educators gathered this week to discuss with medical specialists how best to deal with and help students recovering from concussion.

The forum, held Tuesday night in the auditorium at Wellesley High School, was organized by WHS senior Ian Ettinger. A varsity athlete, Ettinger has suffered from sports-related concussions and struggled in school as a result. He interviewed other classmates who’d had concussions and made a video, originally intended as an end-of-year senior project.

“I realized I was so sick of concussions…so I decided to just move this earlier,” he said of the decision to host an open forum. “I think any awareness [for concussions] helps a lot.”

The forum featured presentations from Stuart Glassman, M.D., of Granite Physiatry in Concord, N.H., and Neal McGrath, Ph.D. of Sports Concussion New England in Brookline. Both have worked extensively with sports-related concussion patients and had advice for parents and students dealing with concussion recovery at home, and for educators in terms of making accommodations for concussed students.

McGrath compared the recovery process for many students to the movie “Groundhog Day” – a repeated cycle of waking up and feeling poorly, exerting more energy than they should in school, and going to bed feeling even worse, because they aren’t giving themselves the time needed to rest and recover properly.

“The symptom [of a concussion] will continue if we’re not managing things right,” McGrath said. These symptoms can include headache, fatigue, and an overall “foggy” feeling that can make it very difficult for students to focus in an academic environment.

Math, foreign language and reading can become especially hard for students recovering from concussion, McGrath said. He recommends that recovering students avoid high-stress exams like the SAT, and that teachers go at the student’s pace, extend deadlines, and excuse assignments when possible.

“It’s really a matter of trying to find out how much can they do without making their condition worse,” McGrath said, adding that some concussed students have had to take a full year off school to recover. “A student can only do so much at any point in recovery.”

Glassman stressed the importance of students reporting injuries and symptoms so that concussions can be diagnosed and treated properly. He used the example of professional athletes, most recently the late football star Junior Seau, who failed to report the extent of their injuries and met untimely deaths as a result. Seau’s suicide is believed to have been the result of brain damage caused by repeated concussions from playing football.

“You really have to be telling what your symptoms are,” Glassman said. “No one is invincible. This injury can affect any kid or any star athlete at any time.”

Glassman said that the increased attention paid to sports-related concussion has been met with some backlash from the athletic community.

“When you show pictures of dead kids on the screen, it scares the daylights out of people,” he said. “A lot of the coaches [at another school I spoke at] were like, ‘Why did you do that?’ And I said, ‘Because it’s about getting the message out. It’s about safety.’”

Debbie Condren, of Wellesley, said that her daughter has suffered multiple concussions and that she struggled in school as a result. She missed four and a half months of the seventh grade from a concussion sustained during a skiing accident.

Condren said she is happy that concussions are now being looked at as a serious medical condition not to be taken lightly, and that the forum had been held to address the surrounding issues.

“Up until probably maybe halfway through our experience with concussions, it was all about getting the kids back to sports,” she said. “Nobody addressed the cognitive difficulties with dealing with a kid academically.”

As a student athlete, who’s dealt with concussions, Ettinger also said he’s glad the issue is more out in the open.

“Many of the points that [Drs. McGrath and Glassman] touched on, I suffered from personally, and I know friends of mine have suffered from the same exact things,” he said. “I think it’s nice just to broadcast it out there and get the word out.”

(Cassidy Swanson is an Emerson College journalism graduate student who is focusing on Wellesley for a school project. We thank her for contributing to The Swellesley Report.)

RELATED: Wellesley High students to share concussion experiences

print

Share

Filed Under: Sports, Wellesley High School

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Linden Square, Wellesley
Write Ahead

Tip us off…

Please send tips, photos, ideas to [email protected]
Wellesley Square ad
Wellesley, Jesamondo
Sexton test prep
Feldman Law
Fay School, Southborough
Wellesley Theatre Project
Admit Fit, Wellesley
image of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
Never miss a post with our free daily Swellesley Report email
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide

You can subscribe for free, though we appreciate any contribution that supports our independent journalism.

Click here to read our Natick Report

Natick Report

Events Calendar

« January 2021 » loading...
S M T W T F S
27
28
29
30
31
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
1
2
3
4
5
6
Wed 27

Online history lecture: Petticoat Whalers

January 27 @ 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Thu 28

Banking on Our Value panel discussion

January 28 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Most Read Posts

  • Wellesley Business Buzz: More local businesses get state COVID-19 grants; $1M in penalties for car dealership firm; regional chamber touts Feb. 4 open house
  • Wellesley High back to hybrid learning; schools tightening budget belts due to COVID
  • Now you apply for your Wellesley RDF permit online
  • Wellesley health officials frustrated with limited vaccine role; schools to discuss COVID-19 dashboard update
  • Wellesley seeks designation as Housing Choice Community

Pages

  • Wellesley coronavirus (COVID-19) updates
  • Wellesley’s 7 official scenic roads
  • Wellesley, Mass., fishing spots
  • Please support our advertisers—they support us
  • Embracing diversity in Wellesley
  • Wellesley, MA Police logs
  • Wellesley Choral Society
  • Wellesley College Notable Alumnae
  • Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.
  • Wellesley outdoor art gallery
  • Wellesley restaurants offering take-out and delivery
  • Wellesley, Massachusetts restaurant — Amarin of Thailand

Recent Comments

  • Dennis McCormick on Wellesley health officials frustrated with limited vaccine role; schools to discuss COVID-19 dashboard update
  • Anonymous on Wellesley health officials frustrated with limited vaccine role; schools to discuss COVID-19 dashboard update
  • Jay Prosnitz on Wellesley health officials frustrated with limited vaccine role; schools to discuss COVID-19 dashboard update
  • Julio C on Gas-p! Wellesley laments departure of legendary mechanic Larry Ng
  • Bob Brown on Wellesley seeks designation as Housing Choice Community

Links we like

  • Great Runs
  • Jack Sanford: Wellesley's Major League Baseball Star
  • Taquitos.net
  • Tech-Tamer
  • The Wellesley Wine Press
  • Universal Hub
  • Wellesley Sports Discussion Facebook Group

Categories

  • 2021 Town Election (4)
  • Animals (377)
  • Antiques (48)
  • Art (534)
  • Beyond Wellesley (28)
  • Books (343)
  • Business (1,359)
  • Camp (1)
  • Careers/jobs (44)
  • Churches (72)
  • Clubs (207)
  • Construction (280)
  • Dump (113)
  • Education (2,881)
    • Babson College (239)
    • Bates Elementary School (14)
    • Dana Hall School (29)
    • Fiske Elementary School (6)
    • Hardy Elementary School (33)
    • Hunnewell Elementary School (34)
    • MassBay (47)
    • Schofield Elementary School (20)
    • Sprague Elementary School (19)
    • St. John School (1)
    • Tenacre Country Day School (9)
    • Upham Elementary School (30)
    • Wellesley College (598)
    • Wellesley High School (884)
    • Wellesley Middle School (195)
  • Embracing diversity (38)
  • Entertainment (722)
  • Environment (668)
  • Fashion (133)
  • Finance (13)
  • Fire (141)
  • Food (327)
  • Fundraising (559)
  • Gardens (136)
  • Government (387)
    • 2020 Town Election (47)
  • Health (739)
    • COVID-19 (136)
  • History (358)
  • Holidays (365)
  • Houses (118)
  • Humor (45)
  • Kids (814)
  • Law (3)
  • Letters to the Editor (6)
  • Media (63)
  • METCO (5)
  • Military (3)
  • Morses Pond (96)
  • Music (543)
  • Natick Report (27)
  • Neighbors (244)
  • Obituaries (58)
  • Outdoors (582)
  • Parenting (60)
  • Police (689)
    • Crime (346)
  • Politics (534)
  • Real estate (287)
  • Religion (127)
  • Restaurants (302)
  • Safety (142)
  • Scouts (1)
  • Senior citizens (108)
  • Shopping (122)
  • Sports (898)
  • STEM (104)
  • Technology (154)
  • Theatre (383)
  • Town Meeting (22)
  • Transportation (209)
  • Travel (11)
  • Uncategorized (1,205)
  • Volunteering (317)
  • Weather (161)
  • Wellesley Election 2019 (21)
  • Wellesley Free Library (258)
  • Wellesley's Wonderful Weekend (5)
RSS Feed Icon Subscribe to RSS Feed

© 2021 The Swellesley Report
Site by Tech-Tamer · Login