The Concussion Crisis: Anatomy of a Silent Epidemic

by Linda Carroll, David Rosner

Overview

THE CONCUSSION CRISIS brings an explosive but largely unseen epidemic out of the shadows. It puts a human face on a pressing public health crisis through poignant stories of athletes (from the peewees to the pros), soldiers, and others whose lives have been forever changed by jolts to the head and brain. Weaving their cautionary tales with a clear and accessible explanation of the advancing science and medicine, The Concussion Crisis is the definitive exploration of the invisible injury behind today’s alarming headlines. Journalists Linda Carroll and David Rosner sound an urgent wake-up call to every family and argue for changing a macho culture that refuses to treat concussion seriously as the traumatic brain injury it is.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781451627459
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	02/21/2012
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Throughout her two decades as a nationally respected health and fitness writer, Linda Carroll has mastered the art of making complex subjects entertaining and accessible for the average reader. She has written for a wide range of prominent publications, including The New York Times, SmartMoney, Health, and MSNBC.com. Currently, she is a contract writer for NBC News, covering health and business. An accomplished equestrian, Carroll brings more than thirty years of experience in breeding, training, and showing horses. For the past two decades, she has owned and operated Fiery Run Farm, where she has hands-on control of breeding and training her twelve Arabian and Oldenburg sport horses. For more information, visit the farm’s website at FieryRunFarm.com.

For three decades, David Rosner has worked as a sportswriter at major metro newspapers and national magazines. As an award-winning staff writer at Newsday in New York, he spent twelve years covering the full gamut of pro sports—including horse racing. He has covered racing since the spring of ’77 when his first bylined stories as a cub reporter chronicled the harrowing Belmont spill that hospitalized the teen sensation Steve Cauthen. Rosner earned national Associated Press Sports Editors Association awards for investigative reporting and for deadline writing as well as New York State AP and UPI awards for enterprise journalism. He also served as editor-in-chief of the national hockey magazine Rinkside and coauthored The Official Illustrated NHL History.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This noteworthy book issues a challenge to the "macho play-through-the pain" sports culture and urges a rethinking of safety versus spectacle." —-Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

…thoughtfully passionate and comprehensive…The Concussion Crisis is quite a devastating testament. It lays it all out and forces us to ponder how a civilized people can blithely accept an entertainment that does such damage to young men's minds.
—The Washington Post

Frank Deford

On the heels of the recent deaths of NHL player Derek Boogaard and NFL safety Dave Duerson involving possible brain trauma, this book detailing the current plague of sports-related concussions, written by MSNBC.com health writer Carroll and sports scribe Rosner, is a very hot topic. The authors cite estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that there are 1.6 million to 3.8 million sports-related concussions every year. With more than 44 million girls and boys playing organized sports, the writers spell out the dire consequences of impact games without proper safety measures. They provide grisly statistics and cautionary examples of schoolchildren and sports figures such as big league football stars Troy Aikman, hockey star Pat LaFontaine, and boxer Jerry Quarry, who have compromised health after a life of competition and concussions. The authors recount how scientists have come to understand the danger concussions pre-sent—ranging from memory loss to impaired judgment and dementia—and note that although treatments and research in brain injuries are showing promise, prevention is the best way to protect both child and adult athletes. This noteworthy book issues a challenge to the "macho play-through-the pain" sports culture and urges a rethinking of safety versus spectacle. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"This noteworthy book issues a challenge to the "macho play-through-the pain" sports culture and urges a rethinking of safety versus spectacle." ---Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

10/01/2013
An interesting historical look at our developing understanding of the damage resulting from concussion. (LJ 9/1/11)

Library Journal

A comprehensive, anecdote-laden analysis ofconcussive head traumas.

MSNBC.com and New York Times health writer Carroll and former Newsday and Neurology Now reporter Rosner examine the concussion epidemic as a "major public health crisis," noting that many of these cases go ignored only to reemerge in adulthood as early-onset Alzheimer's disease or dementia, as in the case of boxing legend Sugar Ray Robinson. The authors reinforce their assertions with numerous case histories involving young athletes like teenaged football hopeful Dave Showalter, whose raw potential was stunted by the cumulative effects of repeated head injuries. More recognizable victims include NFL gridiron heroes Troy Aikman, Al Toon and Steve Young, and hockey stars Eddie Shore and Pat LaFontaine—all of whom were forced into early retirement as a result of concussive brain damage. Carroll and Rosner spotlight the expansive reach of the syndrome by including female athletes equally susceptible to the malady, car-accident victims, a 13-year-old football player who suffered catastrophic injuries from a solitary event, military soldiers in Iraq and the coaches and professional athletic leagues who, under pressure from players, parents and the industry at large, brush off these potentially life-threatening wounds. Though the personal profiles vastly outnumber chapters on remedies, they are consistently intriguing and alarming, accentuated by brain-injury particulars, scientific and medical statistical data and clinical studies by leading concussion experts like Dr. Robert Cantu, who, after two decades of research, published defined guidelines on the duration athletes should be sidelined after a concussive event to prevent permanent damage from "second-impact syndrome." The authors argue that while positive change is underway with heightened awareness from NFL teams and elsewhere, the majority of concussions still go undiagnosed and that education remains the best defense against this "invisible injury with subtle symptoms that often seems to pass quickly."

A cautionary wake-up call about addressing a seemingly innocuous hit to the head with critical care.

Kirkus Reviews