Six years after a concussion in a high school football game, Cody Lehe still lives with his parents, and can barely function like a normal person can. After a helmet to helmet hit in a football game, followed by a second hit in practice, Cody now has what doctors call second impact syndrome. After 55 days in the intensive care unit, Cody was transferred to the rehabilitation section of the hospital, and finally left the hospital after 98 days. He has suffered cardiac arrest, hypotension, pneumonia, renal failure and sepsis, along with not being able to walk or talk. (Lupkin 14) Cody 's concussion has changed his life forever. “Often dismissed as just getting your bell rung, concussions are mild traumatic brain injuries that can lead to long-term
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“Robin Karpf, medical director of Lawrenceville School, a private school in Lawrenceville, NJ, began using the ImPACT system about three years ago after she discovered what a big problem concussions are in high school sports. She deals with 60 to 70 of them a year at the exclusive boarding school, known for both its high-powered academics and sports. She now uses the computer test results, with other traditional means of assessing concussions, to not only determine whether a child should go back to play but whether he or she needs special classroom accommodations, such as longer time for tests, while recovering.” (FitzGerald 24) The post concussion ImPACT scores helps doctors measure the player 's recovery. (“Sports Concussions” 2) “Experience is showing that even when a player 's concussion symptoms are resolved, the test can turn up evidence that brain function is still not back to normal,” Lovell says. (FitzGerald 16) That shows the importance of tracking the athlete 's recovery process, in that the brain may need more time to recover. If Cody Lehe, the football player mentioned before, would have had access to ImPACT at his high school and taken the post concussion test, his fatal accident could have been drastically limited. The post concussion test would have shown Cody 's doctors that he was not able to return to practice that next day, where he suffered another blow to the head. Concussion testing like ImPACT helps track the athletes recover process, which leads to knowing when the athlete can return to
“Robin Karpf, medical director of Lawrenceville School, a private school in Lawrenceville, NJ, began using the ImPACT system about three years ago after she discovered what a big problem concussions are in high school sports. She deals with 60 to 70 of them a year at the exclusive boarding school, known for both its high-powered academics and sports. She now uses the computer test results, with other traditional means of assessing concussions, to not only determine whether a child should go back to play but whether he or she needs special classroom accommodations, such as longer time for tests, while recovering.” (FitzGerald 24) The post concussion ImPACT scores helps doctors measure the player 's recovery. (“Sports Concussions” 2) “Experience is showing that even when a player 's concussion symptoms are resolved, the test can turn up evidence that brain function is still not back to normal,” Lovell says. (FitzGerald 16) That shows the importance of tracking the athlete 's recovery process, in that the brain may need more time to recover. If Cody Lehe, the football player mentioned before, would have had access to ImPACT at his high school and taken the post concussion test, his fatal accident could have been drastically limited. The post concussion test would have shown Cody 's doctors that he was not able to return to practice that next day, where he suffered another blow to the head. Concussion testing like ImPACT helps track the athletes recover process, which leads to knowing when the athlete can return to