B.C. concussion researchers propose change to ‘wildly inconsistent’ way the brain injury is diagnosed – CBC

UBC researcher hopes his new diagnostic criteria will replace ones currently used for concussions

May 25, 2023

Remembering what happened after she hit her head on the ice while playing hockey is tough for Meg Kerekes.

But the former Vancouver high school hockey player knows how that particular headache felt — “like a one-pound weight on the spot that got hit.”

“I forget if they took me out or if I finished the rest of the game,” she said of the suspected concussion in September 2018 when she was playing amateur hockey during her high school years in Vancouver. “I think I might have finished the game.”

Her coach, who doubled as the person in charge of safety, suggested she stop playing and mentioned she might have a concussion.

“I didn’t go to a doctor or anything. They just didn’t let me play for two weeks,” said Kerekes, who suffered another hit to the head five months later when an opposing player slammed into her.

Her mother took her to hospital after the second incident on the coach’s orders, where a suspected concussion was confirmed, and Kerekes was out of school for 10 days. She returned to “light” hockey practice but no games three weeks later.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/brain-injury-diagnosis-1.6854589