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The Importance of Proper Post-Accident Attention for College Football Spine Injuries

Dec 30, 2015 Brown Moore Spine Injury

In September 2015, Fox 8 reported that a severely-injured college football player was likely to make a full recovery. Considering that he lost consciousness and was unable to move, talk, or breathe immediately after a collision with a team member during practice, the likelihood of a full recovery seems miraculous to each Charlotte spine injury attorney at our firm.

We firmly believe that the school’s football staff members must have had excellent practices in place that allowed them to effectively handle these severe injuries. Thanks to the care the young man received on the field, the hospital that received him may have had a greater range of treatments available to help provide the young athlete with the best possible chances of recovery.

There are numerous risks of injuries in virtually every type of sport, so even parents of college-age children need to remain watchful that their school sports programs have the proper procedures in place that help increase the chances of recovery.

How Parents Can Monitor School Sports Programs to Protect the Safety of their Children

It is virtually impossible to remove every risk of injury to sports participants, but there are many things that schools can do to reduce the risks and handle injuries properly when they occur. The National College Athletics Association (NCAA) presents 140 pages worth of standards in its 2013-14 NCAA Sports Medicine Handbook, which parents of athletes should review. Parents are also advised to carefully monitor the following as long as their children participate in sports:

  • Preliminary health evaluations: An important part of reducing the chances of injury involves ensuring that players do not have any medical conditions that place them at increased risk of injury. Physicians need to conduct a thorough exam to identify concerns ranging from cardiac conditions to structural deficiencies. Just as important, they need to review medical histories to determine if past injuries place players at too great an injury risk to permit participation.
  • Detailed emergency response plans: Every school sports program should handle injuries in accordance with a detailed written plan. This includes having medically-trained individuals available for an immediate response, instantly-available emergency equipment, and clear relationships with nearby emergency medical facilities. They also need to train all personnel, including players, to ensure that they know what to do (and what not to do) when a player sustains accidental injuries during play or practice.

When children are away from home to attend school, parents are not likely to be present at every sporting event. However, they still need to do everything possible to help ensure that the school is providing the same type of support their children would receive while under parental supervision.

Even With Planning, Negligence Can Play a Role in Unnecessary Injuries

It only takes one improper movement of an accident victim or delayed post-accident response to cause players with brain or spinal cord injury to sustain life-changing, permanent damage. Other players are seldom at fault for these injuries, but anything from post-accident handling on the field to physician errors can greatly affect the degree of recovery from many sports injuries.

After an injury, parents should consider the possibility that additional damage was caused by improper handling or even medical negligence. For an honest assessment of the circumstances leading to your serious injury, call us at 800-948-0577 or use our convenient online contact form to arrange for a free initial consultation.