Concussion after accident in PE lesson at school

I do worry about the long term effects of my concussion as well as getting any more. Since my concussion and post concussion syndrome, I have lost my ability to see in my mind’s eye (aphantasia) and I have very odd moments of my whole brain and thoughts literally slowing down, like my thoughts are wading through treacle. It is quite scary and worrying. The doctor has said it is prob post concussion amnesia which isn’t very reassuring! 😳🙄

Hi my son had an accident at school last year with amnesia and post concusion syndrom that lasted for months. Suggest you ask referral to see a neurologist ophtalmologiste if not getting better and ask the school what really happen

So sorry this has happened to you.
The same thing happened to us several years ago. The school lied and covered up.
It took 5 months before my child could go back to school.
Interestingly I never heard a peep about attendance. I am not sure how they got round that.
Make sure you get proper medical care for your ds and let him rest as much as he needs.
My dc slept for 18 hours a day for nearly 3 months before gradually getting back to normal.

All these repeated concussions can lead to CTE. The children may make a 'quick recovery' but the effects could well manifest themselves in the future.

WobblyLondoner - don't get too hung up on what actually happened to cause the concussion. There's one word - rugby!

Seriously, though, my son got a concussion last Sunday at the local rugby club. He can't really be relied on to say what happened, he was talking about a knee three times in his face, but it seems like it was all a genuine tackle gone wrong.

In terms of how your son should be treated at school - honestly I think you need to tell them. Check out the return to play guidelines from the rfu and just stay on top of how much they are getting him to do academically as well.

Key that he can't return to vigorous sport for a bit.

www.englandrugby.com/my-rugby/players/player-health/concussion-headcase/#

The good thing is that the younger they are the better they recover.

You ought to be able to opt out of contact rugby as well, so discuss that with the school if you'd like to. My son has 50 boys in his year and 1 has opted out!

Sorry to hear your ds has been so unwell.

With regards trying to find out the truth and keeping on plugging away - I suspect they'll close ranks and doors harder.

My ds was involved in an incident (school were at fault for not putting things in place to prevent it when previously flagged up).
They were cool about it and told me what happened.
That was until ds had an adverse reaction and I asked them in writing what they were now going to do to prevent it as they'd failed to act.
Reports became very contradictory because they then went on a cover up (safeguarding issue) expedition.

I'd simply email and reassure them you don't blame them as realise and accept it's an accident. But you want to make sure they have proper risk assessments and have review head injury policy in case of future events.

Do you worry about the long tern affects of those common concussions getmeoutofhere?

Just to add.. we are a family in a sporting environment where concision is a rather unfortunately common occurrence. It takes each person a different length of time to recover.. some days, some weeks, some months.. but given time, things to return to normal.. so try not to worry too much.

I'm sorry to hear about your son's accident. I have experience of a family member suffering quite severe concussion and it's quite a frighting experience for everyone. I found information on the Headway website quite helpful and reassuring - I hope this helps you all too: www.headway.org.uk/about-brain-injury/individuals/types-of-brain-injury/minor-head-injury-and-concussion/living-with-concussion/

Our school sent round some information including a video about concussion and how it can affect you. We were told to watch it with our children but it was also shown at school

I am sorry you are having to deal with this.

Yes - if child is messing around or it's a pure accident (trips over own feet) or has chosen the sport it's just one of those things. If contact sport is compulsory the child is being put in a risky position and PE staff have to be on absolutely high alert and sticking to the most stringent safety standards to the letter, and respond to any accidents with the most vigilant procedures... Really if you're going to make contact sport compulsory for 11 year olds your safety has to be ott and there is no room to be relaxed.

It's so uncomfortable to think children are made to play contact sport and not offered a non contact alternative, and then schools are relaxed about accidents with after effects lasting weeks.

DS1 fell and banged his head and was knocked unconscious briefly in year 9. School informed us immediately, he went to A&E and ended up having a CT scan (all clear thankfully.) He was groggy for a few days but no lasting effects.
The headmaster called me the next day to give me a run-down and timescale of events and invited me into school to view CCTV footage which I declined. His accident was in part due to fooling around in the yard. I would be far more concerned if it had occurred within a structured PE lesson.

There are loads of professional rugby players who are retiring due to concussion. There are rules in place now regarding concussion but I really doubt how effective they are.

Here are the RFU's return to play rules

don't be a headcase

Do girls have to play contact sport Wobbly ?

We're abroad - there are more hours of compulsory sport in school despite shorter school day, but no contact sport for anyone. From year 7 they get a choice of two sports (choose in advance for a block, classes merged for PE so same staff to pupil ratios roughly). They usually have basketball, football, athletics, other more niche things less often, swimming is the only compulsory thing in two blocks per year.

I am not sure what else the school could have done. They used professional coaches. Your ds was taken to medical room after accident. They called you and he was taken to a and e. What else could they have done? I hope he gets better soon but he had an accident. They can happen at any time. Sometimes no one is to blame.

Is contact sport compulsory? Did your son choose it from a contact and non contact option?

I must say I'd be unhappy with compulsory contact sport in PE for the next 4.5 years. If the child at this age had chosen to play contact rugby I'd be a lot more resigned and accepting than if there were no choice even for children who would rather stick with touch rugby or play football or basketball or do athletics etc

These kinds of accidents only happen when children haven't been taught properly/not supervised properly with the exception of a very rare freak accident.
I think accident DO happen tho, a child's could slip and bang their head walking down a corridor (mine did!), and my other DC managed to cut his face quite badly falling against a table, when I was right there, about to collect him from school(if I hadn't seen it myself, I'd have thought he must have been tearing a round to manage such a fall, but no, he just fell over walking!).
I think you're right to want to know what happened, but I don't think the accident necessarily indicates that anything was amiss.
Also, by way of reassurance, whether you get concussion, and how badly, doesn't seem as dependent on how hard the blow was as you might think...I banged my head quite hard, many times as a child, but only got concussion once, when I bumped my head on the wall as I lay down in bed - but it seemed a minor tap at the time. So, though he has lingering symptoms, that doesn't necessarily meant that he was knocked unconscious, or that the blow was very hard (nor that he will get concussion again the next time he bumps his head).
I hope he soon feels better

I hope your son recovers quickly btw

I am a former teacher. You need to be sure that the 'professional trainers' were actually specialist rugby coaches.

Many sports coaching companies will send in coaches to coach say badminton, but the individual coach will not have any badminton qualification. If they were working under the teachers supervision, then the teacher would still have been responsible for the safety in the lesson, and the school are in a legal minefield.

The LEA should be able to send their health and safety person in to investigate, but it could well be a whitewash. Have the school interviewed other pupils to find out what happened?

I wouldn't be at all surprised that your son's recollection is different to the school's. I have been a team manager for a rugby team affiliated to a well known rugby club for several years and watched my ds play from U10s - U16s (where we are now) and the boy's version is often at considerable variance from what the coaches, myself, parents or our first aider saw happen. It's often the nature of concussion that they don't clearly recall what occurred, even if they walk off the pitch absolutely fine, and as someone who has filled in a fair number of accident sheets over the last few years, I have to make the best of what I can from the most coherent reports I can muster during/after a fast moving game or training session.

If this had happened to your son during one of our club matches or training sessions we would have told the parent to take the child to A&E if there were any signs of confusion, sleepiness, headache or vomiting. They would be put on concussion protocol for 14 days regardless of the A&E diagnosis - so not allowed to return to any physical sport (both club and school) during that time. After 14 days we would ask that a health care professional clears them to return to sport. If not cleared they continue for a further 14 days and so on. Those are the RFU guidelines and it might be worth watching the video here: www.englandrugby.com/my-rugby/players/player-health/concussion-headcase/ which gives some helpful info for parents, players and coaches.

Personally, I would suggest to the school that they review their concussion protocol and make sure it is in line with RFU age grade rugby but... beyond that... I'm not sure that the school did communicate badly and it sounds like your ds's HoY is helping him in positive ways.

I do hope he gets over it soon.

I'm another who can't see what the school have done wrong.

DS2 had an accident playing rugby for the school, at school, in Yr11. They called an ambulance because they thought he had a neck injury but he'd dislocated and broken his shoulder in 3 places.

I dealt with the head of PE. They filled in the accident form, gave me a copy and sent one to the Health and Safety Executive because his injury was notifiable or something. We accepted it was an accident. These things happen. Schools, and parents, can't wrap kids up in cotton wool.

Have you seen the documentary about rugby and brain damage. I honestly would be v Cross about contact rugby being allowed at all, especially in year groups (not weight based) as puberty hits dramatically for boys so some could be very much man-sized and others little boys.
I would raise an official complaint and ask for them to review their contact sports policy.
Because I’m so against this, I would actually sue and there’s almost nothing I would say that for but it’s one way to ensure they don’t harm another child through poor care and not knowing the science.