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Reply to "Sneaky Concussion"

With head injuries it’s not always how hard, but where and what angle. In 14U I was watching pregame warm up. A kid that would eventually play P5 D1 was in center lazily going back for a fly the coach hit a bit too hard. The ball hit high on the wooden fence and ricocheted down at an odd angle. As the ball came down it clipped the centerfielders temple. He never missed a stride, picked up the ball tossed it to 2nd.

In hindsight sometime during the day he did tell a couple teammates the ball rang his bell a bit. He gets up the next morning and has no clue who he is. He’s forgotten how to do math – which is a big issue at end of school year testing. His doctor thought getting him around his teammates and coaches might be helpful, although playing was obviously off-limits.

What struck me was it didn’t seem like the same person. His walk and speech cadence were different. Not different as being injured, different as in all the little things in life that weigh us down and lift us up were gone – just wiped clean.

It all came back, and he continued to excel at school and baseball, but very scarry as it defined how fragile we truly are. On a funny note, his favorite treat had always been root beer floats. His dad makes him one and after sucking down about half he says to his dad, “Root beer and vanilla ice cream? Who’d have thought of that combination, dad you’re a genius!”.   

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