Concussions and Brain Injuries in Youth Sports.

After Zackery Lystedt’s brain injury, “he couldn’t speak for nine months,” his father said. Thirteen months later, “he could move his left arm a little; it took two years to get rid of the feeding tube and four years before he could move his right leg purposefully.” Zackery had suffered a concussion during a high school football game in 2006, but “was twice returned to play and collapsed 60 seconds after the game was over.”1 The school district settled a lawsuit for $14.6 million.2 About 1.6–3.8 million sports-related concussions occur every year,3 and a recent study found that “182,000 football players may sustain at least one concussion annually in youth (99,000), high school (79,640), and NCAA football programs (3,905),” or about 1 in 30 youth players and 1 in 14 high school players.4 Symptoms may appear mild but the injury can lead to life-long problems with physical function, concentration, memory, behavior, and emotion. Tragically, among high-school football athletes there were eight fatalities directly related to brain injuries in the 2013 season.5 At present, all fifty states have sports concussion laws modeled after the 2009 law in Washington that resulted from Zackery Lystedt’s tragedy. Every law includes three components: education about the nature and risk of concussion and head injury for coaches, athletes, and parents/guardians; removal from play after a suspected concussion; and return to play with the approval of a trained and licensed practitioner.6