Who is responsible for concussions

The law does not expect perfection in the standard of care, but it does demand best efforts where a duty is owed. Once a duty is recognized, and it is demonstrated that there was a failure to meet it, the injured party must still establish that failure led to, or contributed to, their loss.

This can be a challenging obstacle in the context of concussions. To establish liability at law, a complainant must establish a link between head trauma suffered while playing the sport to those injuries. These are often complex medical and factual determinations that vary significantly from case to case. While there is an increasing body of scientific work linking brain injuries to debilitating and chronic issues such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy CTE and dementia, delay between the initial head injury and when symptoms manifest can be an obstacle for establishing causation.

The law surrounding liability for concussions remains unsettled, creating challenges for plaintiffs seeking to recover damages for injuries. However, that does not relieve responsibility from sports organizations in the interim.

To mitigate liability and protect their players, organization must proactively address their duty of care. Organizations should seek medical and legal advice to ensure they are meeting the standard of care required for their players.

While their efforts need not be perfect, organizations cannot escape liability by begging ignorance any longer. Josh Hanet Partner - Toronto. Despite this, an abrupt blow to the head, or even a rapid deceleration, can cause the brain to contact the inner side of the skull.

There is a potential for tearing of blood vessels, pulling of nerve fibers and bruising of the brain. Sometimes the blow can result in microscopic damage to the brain cells without obvious structural damage visible on a CT scan.

In severe cases, the brain tissue can begin to swell. Since the brain cannot escape the rigid confines of the skull, severe swelling can compress the brain and its blood vessels, limiting the flow of blood. Without adequate blood flow, the brain does not receive the necessary flow of oxygen and glucose. A stroke can occur. Brain swelling after a concussion has the potential to amplify the severity of the injury. A blow to the head can cause a more serious initial injury to the brain.

A contusion is a bruise of the brain tissue involving bleeding and swelling in the brain. A skull fracture occurs when the bone of the skull breaks. A skull fracture by itself may not necessarily be a serious injury. Sometimes, however, the broken skull bones cause bleeding or other damage by cutting into the brain or its coverings.

A hematoma is a blood clot that collects in or around the brain. If active bleeding persists, hematomas can rapidly enlarge. Like brain swelling, the increasing pressure within the rigid confines of the skull due to an enlarging blood clot can cause serious neurological problems, and can even be life-threatening.

Some hematomas are surgical emergencies. Hematomas that are small can sometimes go undetected initially, but may cause symptoms and require treatment several days or weeks later.

After a player is diagnosed with a concussion, the protocol calls for a minimum of daily monitoring. The protocol progresses through a series of steps, moving to the next step only when all activities in the current step are tolerated without recurrence of symptoms.

Communication between the player and the medical staff during the protocol is essential. The first step is rest. During this time, in addition to avoiding physical exertion, the player is to avoid electronics, social media and even team meetings until he returns to his baseline level of signs and symptoms. By continuing to use the site or closing this banner without changing your cookie settings, you agree to our use of cookies and other technologies.

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News Northeastern Homepage When football players suffer from concussions, who is responsible? Did you like this story? Several men in ties and lab coats report that the league is developing rules aimed at preventing head injuries, and is devoting more money to support research into the effect those injuries are having. It is a slightly more measured conversation than the one Lewis and Brady had last season, after the former hit the latter hard in a playoff game:.

Though there are still some holdouts—the N. We can thus generally agree that, in a perfect world, something should be done to make football safer. Among proponents of personal responsibility, the last two options seem ideal, until you consider a story, several levels downstream from Brady and Lewis, that went national this week: Five preteens suffered concussions in a Pop Warner football game in central Massachusetts last month.

The final score was Pop Warner players, who are as young as five, clearly do not have the wherewithal to protect themselves. But what of their parents?