Traumatic Brain Injuries the Silent Stalker in Sports

Traumatic brain injuries stalk the world of sports. Only now are people realizing that it could happen to anyone.

Snowboarding is a rather elegant sport; an Olympic one where several participants hope to achieve gold. It’s an interesting world of things called snowboarding in the half-pipe, double backflips (dubbed Backside 720) and other strange names like Alley Oops, that represent a variety of contortions performed in mid-air while on a snowboard.

Or to be more precise, performed while “not” on the board, but instead a few feet in the air over the snowboard. Think ski jumping without the skis and only having a small board to land on when they come down.

It’s quite the sight to see the best of the best tackle some of the hardest moves in this sport. Snowboarding in half-pipe was once something that most snowboarders would gladly do their practice runs on. “To understand the half-pipe, it’s where participants move from one wall to another to do their tricks. This is not something a beginner should try. Unfortunately, it’s something even the veterans have trouble with at times,” commented Christopher Mellino, of the Mellino Law Firm LLC in Cleveland, Ohio.

Since former Olympic snowboarder Kevin Pearce wiped out while snowboarding in half-pipe, his colleagues think twice about doing the same thing. “Pearce’s accident in January 2010 resulted in him being placed on a ventilator suffering from a severe brain injury; the result of a twisting double backflip that didn’t go as planned,” said Mellino. The sport itself came to a standstill in total shock and safety became a very urgent concern in an activity where falling is all too common.

“Even in light of Pearce’s accident, the US Ski and Snowboard didn’t make changes to the pipe used for the Olympics: 22 feet high with a 500 foot long pipe,” Mellino added. The Winter Games went on, without Pearce, while the country marveled at another never before seen feat on a snowboard, a double McTwist 1,260. This isn’t the maneuver that took Pearce out of the race. He was doing a double cork 1,080 that involved three rotations.

“While Pearce knew the trick he was doing at the time of the accident, he still had a serious fall that resulted in his traumatic brain injury. The lesson inherent in this is that many sports, while fun and enjoyed by many, may still result in serious, life altering injuries and even death,” commented Mellino.

Traumatic brain injury is a significant struggle for the person recovering and they may face years of rehabilitation, headaches, difficulty remembering things, uncertain emotional stability, cognitive difficulties, and other significant setbacks. Many traumatic brain injury survivors will not be able to work again, thus the question becomes how do they support themselves?

In many instances related to sports, those who have sustained this type of injury may wish to consider filing a personal injury lawsuit. Each case is different and the attorney who assesses the case will know best how to proceed.

“There may be a variety of questions to be answered such as: was there defective equipment or an improperly maintained pipe? When in doubt about a sports injury that has resulted in a traumatic brain injury, consult a seasoned personal injury attorney and find out what to do,” advised Christopher Mellino, of the Mellino Law Firm LLC in Cleveland, Ohio.

To learn more, visit http://www.christophermellino.com.

Tags: Cleveland malpractice lawyer, Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer

This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 5:04 pm and is filed under Press Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.