Concussion Persuasive Speech

Words: 1119
Pages: 5

Every year, in countless occasions the youth of America are recovering from brain injury. There are anywhere from 1.6 to 3.8 million concussions every year that are reported according to the Centers for Disease Control’s website. This data was posted in 2015 alongside their HEADS UP campaign which aims to educate those who are entering athletics and recreation. There are countless other concussions that go unreported according to the CDC. I can tell you that this is true. I have not reported all but one of my concussions I received in my playing career. Today I aim to persuade you to see that a concussion is not the responsibility of anyone else besides the one who receives it and the medical attention that is needed to recover from it.
When receiving concussion like symptoms, it is the athlete’s responsibility to report them to a member of the training staff or coaching staff. The symptoms to look for, according to the Mayo Clinic’s web page on concussion research, are as follows:
…show more content…
My first change would be to restrict an athlete to no contact for seven days after he passes his seven step concussion testing. Some may argue that there are a few athletes that may have mild concussions and could be completely healed in time by the end of their seven step testing. This may be true, but until there is a way to definitively define whether a concussion is severe or not without a doubt on a case by case basis, we need to keep the athlete’s health in mind. Another argument to this may be, “What if athletes stop self-reporting all concussions?” This is an argument where then the risk is on the player’s shoulders. The athlete needs to realize at that point the real danger he is putting himself in. The dangers of not reporting affect an athlete more than missing 14 days of play. 14 days of play is miniscule compared to the lifetime of issues that it may