Second Impact Syndrome: Diagnosis versus Myth
September 13, 2017
Concussion Litigation Reporter
Types : Bylined Articles
On November 5, 2005, La Salle University’s Preston Plevretes took a massive blow to the head during a college football game against La Salle’s rival, Duquesne University. The play occurred in the fourth quarter, when an opposing player collided head-first with the nineteen-year-old Plevretes on a punt return. He lapsed into a coma almost immediately, and eventually underwent lifesaving brain surgery at a nearby hospital. Plevretes survived, but suffered life-long catastrophic injuries as a result of the hit.
A few years after Plevretes’ injury, twenty-two year-oldfullback Derek Sheely lost consciousness and collapsed on the football field during a preseason practice at Frostburg State University. Sheely was rushed to a nearby hospital and, on August 28, 2011, passed away due to traumatic brain injury (TBI), by some accounts from a helmet-to-helmet hit.
Ever since sport-related concussions in football became a hot-button topic in 2007 when Alan Schwartz published his first CTE article in the New York Times, followed soon after by the 2009 and 2010 Congressional hearings on legal issues relating to football head injuries, stories such as Plevretes’ and Sheely’s started becoming more commonly reported (and litigated).
This article was originally published in Concussion Litigation Reporter.