Post Concussions Case Study

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Emily Thomas suffered two concussions back to back and suffers from post concussion syndrome which has affected her academic career and social life. Emily received her concussions in eighth grade and spent three summers going to doctors appointments (Thomas). During her freshman year, a year after her concussion, Emily was only able to attend a full day of classes for the last quarter of the year. Emily, like many other individuals who suffer through concussions, returned home daily physically and mentally exhausted because their brains cannot perform at the same level as they used to. During her freshman year, Emily began to notice that she was no longer the A student she used to be. The following year, sophomore year, Emily began to look …show more content…
Emily faced many of the problems a female face when they receive a concussion, however males experience significantly different symptoms. A fourteen-year-old boy was hit in the head twice while playing hockey and sustained a mild concussion (Marsh et al). He was diagnosed three days after the hit when he decided to go to a local clinic because of headaches. Similar to Emily’s case the patient “reported that he felt extremely fatigued during hockey practice the evening after the injury and decided to withdraw from a cross-country race the next day” (Marsh et al). This is a symptom the overlaps between males and females because the brain is trying to recover and the recovery process requires a significant amount of energy. The doctors advised that patient and his mother to return in one week for a check up, however, the patient did not return until three weeks later. During this visit, the patient noted that he felt fatigued for five days following his injury, however he no longer felt weary. The patient also revealed that he had faced a difficult time concentrating. This is to be expect in both genders because the cognitive region of the brain is injured. Three weeks post-injury, the patient had no symptoms and was advised to not participate in contact sports for short amount of time. The differences in the fourteen-year-old boy and Emily is gender. Gender plays a significant role in the recovery time for