How we can collectively prevent and treat concussions at Ridge

I'm an easily excitable person. As a junior at Ridge in October 2015, I tripped and fell during speech practice because I wasn't paying attention to how I was getting up from my desk and was too excited about the great work my peers were accomplishing (learn more about why I couldn't contain my excitement at http://www.ridgeforensics.com/!). For the first time in Ridge history, a student (yours truly) sustained a concussion from Speech and Debate. This lead to a two-year long recovery from the brain injury and subsequent post concussive syndrome. I went from a visit to my pediatrician to weekly visits with Dr. Sirak at Morristown's Goryeb Children's Hospital to monthly visits with doctors in Pittsburgh at the UPMC Concussion Clinic. This all resulted from me tripping and falling in a classroom at Ridge. Go figure.

But, one good thing came out of this ordeal. I began working towards my Girl Scout Gold Award in order to educate my community on proper concussion prevention and treatment. Most people who saw me thought I was fine, and were confused at why I couldn't complete my work to the capacity that I usually did. That's because concussions and traumatic brain injuries are invisible injuries. There are no casts, no surgeries, no bandages. The wounds caused by concussions cannot be seen by the naked eye, by CT-Scans, nor can they be seen by MRIs. Despite the external normalcy, the injury is there and patients can feel its presence though headaches, dizziness, sensitivity to light and noise, nausea, mental health issues and the plethora of other symptoms that arise after a person sustains a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Everyone might not understand the gravity of a mild concussion, but at the very least, I hope no one in my community unnecessarily experiences the trauma of a TBI. For this, I've dedicated my Gold Award to concussion education, because the more information about concussions we all learn, the more we are able to protect and help our community overcome brain injury.

As a start to my initiative, the Ridge Athletics Department and I hosted a seminar with Dr. Michelle Sirak MD of Atlantic Health System Goryeb Children's Hospital to further athlete and township students' awareness of the signs and symptoms of concussions. Dr. Sirak is the Director of the Department of Physiatry and specializes in concussion care; she discussed signs and symptoms of concussion, and how to prevent and treat brain injuries. The information she presents is applicable and beneficial to students of all ages.

Please view the seminar recording at https://youtu.be/WJu8R5Bhva4 and visit www.keepyourheadsup.org to learn about and to help prevent TBI in your life and the life of your loved ones.

My goal is to ensure that every scholar, athlete, and artist -- every person -- knows the steps to preventing and properly treating concussions. No student needs two years of their high school life devoted to concussion recovery; no person needs an extended period of time in their life devoted to recovering from an injury. If everyone knows the most current concussion protocol, then we can continue flourishing in the environment in which Bernards Township has built successful members of society.