Concussion Class Action | BTN High

Foreign in 2018 um it was for the Anka Valley paranga Football Club in the Adelaide Hills um the first thing I was against Murray Bridge we got absolutely flogged but it was the best game ever I found my passion for footy when Tia was 13 years old she made a switch from basketball to.

Footy just the aggression of it I was a very aggressive basketballer so going into that footy aspect resume is a real contact sport and yeah just loved it at just 15 she made her debut for sturt in the South Australian State League now not even three years later her footy career is done I was just going up for the ball at taking a mark and as I was.

Going up I got hit in the back and then came down and as I was going down someone else was coming up and her knee went straight into my eye the next day I could hardly get out of bed and hardly say daylight everything was just a lot even just talking I struggled because everything was too loud.

For months after that it was still constant headaches constant dizziness confusion you'd wake up every day and not know if you're gonna get really bad symptoms if I'm going to be able to stay at school I'm going to be able to go back to work after a series of head knocks and concussions doctors encouraged Tia to step away from the.

Game from that I looked at it in my own life and I looked at it is it worth going back and playing footy and I've made the decision that I'm not going to looks like he's out McNamara and Randall thump into each other Aussie Rules Football is tough for every high-flying Mark or goals from the boundary there are as many bumps and.

Collisions in 2021 the second most common injury in the AFL were concussions so broadly speaking a concussion is a mild form of traumatic brain injury that's caused by biomechanical forces going to the brain tissue concussions are caused by knocks to our head or body that cause our brain to.

Shake or twist inside our skull these hits can damage the cells in our brain and affect how it functions some of the common symptoms are confusion dizziness irritability nausea or even blacking out in terms of the recovery the majority of people they estimate about 80 of adults would be better or symptom-free in about two weeks with Children and adolescents.

It can be four weeks it tends to be a little bit longer just because the brain's got a bit more happening as it's developing Michael Henry is a PhD student at unisa doing research into concussions he says While most people recover from concussions multiple knocks to the head over the course of a sporting career can cause problems later.

In life so something called CTE has been quite commonly talked about in the news chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE is a degenerative brain Condition it's linked with repeated blows to the head over a long time frame and can cause symptoms like memory loss personality changes aggressive mood swings severe.

Depression and suicidal thoughts now importantly it's not something that we can diagnose definitively or with any great certainty while people are alive the diagnosis only comes after someone has died and scientists have the opportunity to do certain tests and imaging on their brain here's a chance back in 2020 former Richmond Tigers.

Player Shane tuck took his own life after his death his brain was donated to the Australian Sports brain Bank in Sydney Shane's brain was the worst I'd seen in terms of pure CTE and that came as a real shock CTE has also been found in the brains of other former AFL players as well as hundreds of American football players in.

The United States at this stage we don't have a good basis a scientific basis for treatment a big part that I think a lot of the focus is going on now is about preventing it or trying to prevent it in the first place and certainly management of concussions has evolved rapidly in the last five ten years within the last decade the AFL has rapidly changed their.

Approach to concussions as scientists learn more about its long-term effects in 2013 they introduced a mandatory 20-minute concussion assessment for any head knock and since 2021 can cosplayers are required to sit out for a minimum of 12 days and progress through an 11-step return to play program this stringent protocol hasn't always been the case.

Though uh look the 80s and 90s the AFL was blood and guts Richardson nice thing you could do in the 80s and 90s in an AFL game would be to shirk a contest not stand under a ball and have some 16 Stone monster crunch you it was circus Maximus which is where the Roman emperors watched the Gladiators kill each other.

Greg Griffin is a lawyer in Adelaide and he says the concussion protocols the AFL have brought in are a case of too little too late they knew in the 80s everyone he knew in the 80s a concussion was an issue in 1986 Dr Bob Cantu out of Massachusetts wrote the seminal paper on the return to play protocols for injured players for.

Concussed players this paper outlines protocols players should undergo after a concussion before they return to play and Mr Griffin says it's something the AFL should have known about and put into practice I've got a team of six people here in Victoria that go through hundreds of games from the 80s 90s and the 2000s and.

Horrible concussions are just they're just not treated I mean the players aren't taken off they're not properly medically examined it's why Mr Griffin as well as another law firm in Melbourne Margaret lawyers have filed class-action lawsuits in the Victorian Supreme Court we're seeking substantial.

Compensation from the AFL a class-action lawsuit is where a group of people pursue legal action from events that arose from essentially the same set of circumstances so rather than the courts dealing with 200 separate cases on the same thing a group can combine it all into one class action suit in this case it's former AFL and.

Aflw players who are combining to sue the AFL the lawyers argued that the AFL had a duty of care to protect its players from the long-term health effects of concussion and head knocks and should have enforced protocols that meant concussed players were adequately protected now they're seeking millions of dollars.

Of compensation to pay for things like medical bills and the ongoing effects that Mr Griffin says hundreds of former players are suffering I Wrigley hear players calling me telling me you know that they're they're really struggling the AFL have to really stand up and be accountable because there's a lot of broken people out there from from.

Playing the game I love we contacted the AFL for an interview about their concussion protocols and they sent us back a statement saying safety and health of the game's players former current and future at all levels of the game is of Paramount importance earlier this month the AFL also announced they'll put 25 million dollars.

Towards a long-term brain health study and provide more financial support for past players Michael says the research into concussion and the best practice for Recovery is always evolving one of the really big things that we've found in the last sort of 10 years is that exercise small amounts of exercise is really beneficial for Recovery a lot of.

The chemicals that the body releases with exercise actually promote recovery in the brain and promote good brain development if you get a knock you have to be honest about how you're feeling you can't lie because you want to continue playing because that could be detrimental to the rest of your life

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