New program offered to help with concussion study

HOUSTON – Michael Oliver had no doubt something was wrong after a big hit in football practice last year.

A required visit to his doctor confirmed he had a concussion.

"It was constant pain, my head hurt all the time," Oliver said.

It took weeks to recover.

Oliver's season was over and Dr. Evan Ratner ordered him to rest his brain.

Oliver was just one of thousands of Texas high school athletes to suffer a concussion last year.

Football and soccer players are affected the most.

"We're around 1.6 percent to 2 percent out of 14,000 athletes, and that's middle school and high school," Paul Rost said.

Rost is a high school athletic coordinator.

He said any student suspected of having a concussion is pulled from the game or practice and placed into a state mandated five-day protocol.

"Once we are told that they have a concussion, we have to get the doctor's note, we hand them the form and they have to go through our protocol before they can go back on the field," Rost said.

Even if a doctor finds the student didn't have a concussion, they must still wait five days to return to play. The protocols were the state's first attempt to tackle the growing concussion concern.

"Concussions are a problem in every single sport, even swimming and diving," Jamey Harrison said.

Harrison is deputy director of the University Interscholastic League, which oversees most Texas high school sports. The organization has been collecting football injury data from schools, but that didn't provide a very accurate picture when it comes to tracking concussions.

"It is not a scientific study. It was never intended to be a scientific study. It merely provides a snapshot of data," he said.

The UIL is now partnering with a group of hospitals in the Dallas area to create the first detailed study of sports-related concussions called Con-Tex.

It's a voluntary pilot program this year, but it could be mandatory for all schools to report all concussions next year.

"Ultimately, what we hope to do in getting the information back from those medical researchers is to make the games we provide, the activities as safe as they possibly can be," Harrison said.

Oliver's doctor believes it's a step in the right direction.

"This will also help us way down the line when we try to determine who's going to have long-term effects from concussions and who won't," Ratner said.

The hope is to learn where and when concussions are most likely to occur, which could eventually lead to rule changes and new safety guidelines.