Both professional and novice hockey players have filed a lawsuit against Hockey Canada after sustaining severe concussions.
In 2010, then 11-year-old Alexis Turcotte received a concussion from a cross-check to the head in Quebec during a minor hockey game.
This came just before 10 former NHL players filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court on Nov. 25 because of the league’s alleged neglect of concussion education and failure to reduce the risk of head injuries, according the 47-page suit.
Dr. Kristian Goulet, from the Pediatric Sports Medicine Clinic of Ottawa, specializes in concussions and says that children respond much differently to concussions than adults.
“Kids heal quick,” says Goulet. “They heal faster than adults in virtually every condition other than dramatic brain injury.”
Goulet says there can be huge physiological and social implications for children who have had concussions.
Turcotte’s concussion resulted in memory loss, noise and light sensitivity for months and troubles in school. The concussion also prohibits him from ever again playing contact sports.
The player who hit Turcotte received only a two-minute penalty for the cross-check. Turcotte’s lawyer has said he wants to ensure that violence is not tolerated and that rules that are in place are applied in hockey.
Goulet has seen around 3,000 concussions in his career and says that people are now much more aware of the severity of concussions.
“You’ll see that, really within the last two to three years there has been a big change in the amount of knowledge we have,” says Goulet.
“Trainers are learning, parents are becoming more knowledgeable, physicians are getting more knowledgeable.”
Many of Ottawa’s minor hockey leagues are becoming more aware of concussions and have taken the step to educate coaches, referees and trainers, says Goulet.
Ottawa Centre Minor Hockey Association and Hockey Eastern Ontario, both part of Bytown District Hockey, have concussion information on their websites and Hockey Canada even has a concussion awareness app that was launched in 2012.
Andrew Baird, the director for risk and safety at the Ottawa District Minor Hockey Association, says “minor hockey considers concussion injuries a very important issue.”
“Each team, coach, trainer, player and ultimately parent may respond differently to what they perceive as a concussion, type of contact or injury. However for all, the safety of the player is the prime consideration,” says Baird.
Like Turcotte, Carleton Ravens player Jordan Deagle has had trouble with concussions.
He has sustained two concussions in his hockey career. His most recent was in January 2012 when he says he received a “substantial blow to the head” by an opposing player.
Deagle says he believes concussions are considered to be more serious today than in the past when he received his first concussion at the age of 15
“Unfortunately back then, it wasn’t considered the biggest deal. People usually would just kind of refer to it as having a ‘bell rung’ as it was often called. It didn’t warrant much more attention than that,” he says.
Deagle says the concussion he received last year, during a game against Queens University, was treated with much more severity than his first.
“I was under no pressure whatsoever to come back before I was ready. In fact, it was just the opposite, I thought I was ready to play but even so, the coaches and the doctors and the training staff urged me to pursue with great caution,” says Deagle.
“Due to largely the media and just the awareness of concussion over the last two to three years and how important it really is, coaches have to be a lot more careful now. I think they feel liable and understand that the human brain is a very fragile thing and you can’t mess around with it.”
Goulet says he believes that awareness is vital to not only the facilitators of sports, but also the players in reducing sports related concussions such as those that have occurred to Turcotte and Deagle.
“Teach kids to foster greater respect and to respect your opponent better. You’re not going to be running them from behind, you’re not going to be giving elbows to the head and that sort of thing, we really should be minimizing that a lot,” says Goulet.
“Often these penalties are not being called. I think that is the next big step is just making sure that penalties are being called as they are designed to.”
The Turcotte and NHL lawsuits, which now include 200 players, could be the turning point in insuring concussions are always treated seriously.