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The Concussion Crisis: Anatomy of a Silent Epidemic
For far too long, the menace of concussions has been hidden in plain sight. On playing fields across America, lives are being derailed by seemingly innocuous jolts to the head. From the peewees to the pros, concussions are reaching epidemic proportions. This book brings that hidden epidemic and its consequences out of the shadows.
As frightening as the numbers are—estimates of sports-related concussions range from 1.6 million to 3.8 million annually in the United States—they can’t begin to explain the profound impact of a hidden health problem that can strike any of us. It is becoming increasingly clear that concussions, like severe head traumas, can rob us of our memory, our mental abilities, our very sense of self. Because the damage caused by a concussion is rarely visible to the naked eye or even on a brain scan, no one knows how many millions might be living lives devastated by an invisible injury too often shrugged off as “just a bump on the head.”
This book puts a human face on a huge public health crisis. Through narratives that chronicle the poignant experiences of real people struggling with this invisible and often unrecognized brain injury, Linda Carroll and David Rosner bring home its potentially devastating consequences. Among those you will meet are a high school football player whose college dreams were derailed by a series of undiagnosed concussions, a hard-driving soccer star whose own struggles with concussions pushed her to crusade for safety reform as a coach and soccer mom, and an economist who lost her career because of lingering concussion symptoms from a fender bender.
The Concussion Crisis weaves these human dramas with compelling stories of scientists and doctors who are unraveling the mysteries of how an invisible injury can wreak such havoc. It takes readers into the top labs, where scientists are teasing out what goes wrong in the brain after a jolt to the head, and into the nation’s leading concussion clinic, where patients get cutting-edge management and treatment. Carroll and Rosner analyze the cultural factors that allowed this burgeoning epidemic to fester unseen and untreated. They chronicle the growing public awareness sparked by the premature retirements of superstars like NFL quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Steve Young. And they argue for an immediate change in a macho culture that minimizes the dangers inherent in repeated jolts to the head.
The Concussion Crisis sounds an urgent wake-up call to parents, coaches, trainers, doctors, and the athletes themselves. The book will stand as the definitive exploration of this heretofore-silent health crisis. It should be required reading for every parent with a child playing sports—in fact, by everyone who has ever suffered a hard bump on the head.
As frightening as the numbers are—estimates of sports-related concussions range from 1.6 million to 3.8 million annually in the United States—they can’t begin to explain the profound impact of a hidden health problem that can strike any of us. It is becoming increasingly clear that concussions, like severe head traumas, can rob us of our memory, our mental abilities, our very sense of self. Because the damage caused by a concussion is rarely visible to the naked eye or even on a brain scan, no one knows how many millions might be living lives devastated by an invisible injury too often shrugged off as “just a bump on the head.”
This book puts a human face on a huge public health crisis. Through narratives that chronicle the poignant experiences of real people struggling with this invisible and often unrecognized brain injury, Linda Carroll and David Rosner bring home its potentially devastating consequences. Among those you will meet are a high school football player whose college dreams were derailed by a series of undiagnosed concussions, a hard-driving soccer star whose own struggles with concussions pushed her to crusade for safety reform as a coach and soccer mom, and an economist who lost her career because of lingering concussion symptoms from a fender bender.
The Concussion Crisis weaves these human dramas with compelling stories of scientists and doctors who are unraveling the mysteries of how an invisible injury can wreak such havoc. It takes readers into the top labs, where scientists are teasing out what goes wrong in the brain after a jolt to the head, and into the nation’s leading concussion clinic, where patients get cutting-edge management and treatment. Carroll and Rosner analyze the cultural factors that allowed this burgeoning epidemic to fester unseen and untreated. They chronicle the growing public awareness sparked by the premature retirements of superstars like NFL quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Steve Young. And they argue for an immediate change in a macho culture that minimizes the dangers inherent in repeated jolts to the head.
The Concussion Crisis sounds an urgent wake-up call to parents, coaches, trainers, doctors, and the athletes themselves. The book will stand as the definitive exploration of this heretofore-silent health crisis. It should be required reading for every parent with a child playing sports—in fact, by everyone who has ever suffered a hard bump on the head.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
7 people are currently reading
142 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
July 30, 2013
This book is truly horrifying. Not in the fun, haunted house kind of way, but the kind that makes you feel sick and disgusted with humanity for ignoring or downplaying the dangers of head trauma.
Of course everyone knows that getting hit on the head can be dangerous, but it had long been assumed that concussions were just minor injuries. They're not, as this book goes into great depth to explain. Even head trauma that doesn't lead to a diagnosed concussion can have long term effects, particularly when there are many similar hits over the course of a sports career (think soccer players bouncing balls off their head). I don't understand why any parent would let their child participate in contact sports such as football, hockey, or boxing. But then again, I've never been a fan of those sports. The worst part of course is that many people who do know better - the coaches, doctors, and retired players who have seen and suffered the ill-effects of concussions - still advocate against increased safety standards in football and sports. I am reminded of anti-vaccine crusaders who, despite the evidence that vaccines are safe and save lives, still encourage other parents not to vaccinate their children.
4 stars instead of 5 only because of the format of the book - it seems disjointed, almost like a collection of articles rather than one coherent whole. There are so many individual stories about different people, it becomes difficult to follow along at times.
Of course everyone knows that getting hit on the head can be dangerous, but it had long been assumed that concussions were just minor injuries. They're not, as this book goes into great depth to explain. Even head trauma that doesn't lead to a diagnosed concussion can have long term effects, particularly when there are many similar hits over the course of a sports career (think soccer players bouncing balls off their head). I don't understand why any parent would let their child participate in contact sports such as football, hockey, or boxing. But then again, I've never been a fan of those sports. The worst part of course is that many people who do know better - the coaches, doctors, and retired players who have seen and suffered the ill-effects of concussions - still advocate against increased safety standards in football and sports. I am reminded of anti-vaccine crusaders who, despite the evidence that vaccines are safe and save lives, still encourage other parents not to vaccinate their children.
4 stars instead of 5 only because of the format of the book - it seems disjointed, almost like a collection of articles rather than one coherent whole. There are so many individual stories about different people, it becomes difficult to follow along at times.
April 22, 2014
This book is a great read for any parent, teacher or athlete it brings a face to concussions. The Authors chronicle the experiences of multiple athletes, ware veterans, and accident victims. It is clear to see that a concussion or any head trauma should be taken very seriously in any situation and at any age.
We live in a culture where athletes are conditioned to "Play through pain" or "Walk it off" with the ultimate goal of getting back into the action as soon as possible. This certainly should not be the case when it comes to head injuries. This book illustrates how little we know about the long term effects of concussions. Science is making progress, we now know the link between TBI's and early onset dementia, etc. but there is still a lot that science doesn't know.
The stories in this book are often heart breaking and show just how dangerous our current sports metaphor mentality actually is when dealing with head injuries.
We live in a culture where athletes are conditioned to "Play through pain" or "Walk it off" with the ultimate goal of getting back into the action as soon as possible. This certainly should not be the case when it comes to head injuries. This book illustrates how little we know about the long term effects of concussions. Science is making progress, we now know the link between TBI's and early onset dementia, etc. but there is still a lot that science doesn't know.
The stories in this book are often heart breaking and show just how dangerous our current sports metaphor mentality actually is when dealing with head injuries.
January 15, 2020
This book would be really interesting for anybody that wants to learn more about the science and effects of concussions. Before reading this I knew that getting repeated concussions were bad, but I never knew the sever effects that getting only one concussion could have on people. The book is filled with anecdotes from different people all over who got brain injuries because of many different things, but you could see similarities between all of them and how bad this problem really is. At the end of the story it wraps up everything by telling where everyone is today. I learned a lot from this book and would certainly recommend it to people.
January 16, 2020
This SSR book was a great read that offers the long history of complete misunderstanding about this injury. I personally have gotten multiple brain injuries but never knew information about it, like what is in this book. It was a great read as well as very informative and I learned a lot from it.
November 14, 2024
Important history of acknowledging the impact of concussions. Audiobook was well done.
September 6, 2016
The Concussion Crisis by Linda Carroll and David Rosner is a book that attempt to bring the epidemic of brain trauma and damage to the attention of parents and athletes. The book uses real anecdotes about people who have suffered brain damage. A significant agent they talk about was Leigh Steinberg, who was the agent for players Steve Young and Troy Aikman who were in the NFL. Leigh Steinberg became concerned for his players when he visited Aikman in the hospital after he was removed from a game. When Aikman was in the hospital he asked the same question multiple times and never could remember the answer. Another story is about a boy who was a football player for college and suffered from lots of concussions. He never knew that I could get so serious that he would have to drop out of college because he got kicked off the football team and couldn't keep up academically like he could before. He lost a lot of his long-term and short-term memory capabilities and now he talks about the seriousness of concussions. These are two very surreal stories from the book “the concussion crisis” by Linda Carol and David Rosner.
This books strongest point is in there showing of brain damage in real life examples. Just like the two examples from above where the football players get concussions and there is nothing they can do about it. In this book there are a lot of different characters with different types of brain damage. All of them are very in depth and descriptive in the way that they show the injuries and how they try to cope with them. A good example of this is of war veteran who got an explosive accident. He had five pieces of shrapnel stuck in his head and over 500 pieces of shrapnel stuck in the rest of his body. It was hard for him to remember his wife or where he was or even sometimes what he had just done one minute ago. He is faced with a lot of problems in his day-to-day life in which she cannot remember the simple things that he needs to do to survive.
The concussion crisis has another very strong point which is its credibility. They do this by sharing professional athletes stories like Jerry Quarry. Jerry Quarry fought and lost to Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali. He took lots of hits from these heavy hitters of boxing and try to persevere. This led to his career ending and him writing an article about brain damage. His cat scan showed a lot of things that shit I've been there and things that she will see in other long-term boxers like short-term memory. despite being retired around this time. Even with all the injuries that he sustained he still tried to go back to the ring but this was futile. Forward he injured himself even more and ended up dying a couple months later because of complications he had. This book succeed in what it is trying to do because it has shed a lot of light on brain damage and is spreading awareness and knowledge to people who would have known nothing before.
This books strongest point is in there showing of brain damage in real life examples. Just like the two examples from above where the football players get concussions and there is nothing they can do about it. In this book there are a lot of different characters with different types of brain damage. All of them are very in depth and descriptive in the way that they show the injuries and how they try to cope with them. A good example of this is of war veteran who got an explosive accident. He had five pieces of shrapnel stuck in his head and over 500 pieces of shrapnel stuck in the rest of his body. It was hard for him to remember his wife or where he was or even sometimes what he had just done one minute ago. He is faced with a lot of problems in his day-to-day life in which she cannot remember the simple things that he needs to do to survive.
The concussion crisis has another very strong point which is its credibility. They do this by sharing professional athletes stories like Jerry Quarry. Jerry Quarry fought and lost to Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali. He took lots of hits from these heavy hitters of boxing and try to persevere. This led to his career ending and him writing an article about brain damage. His cat scan showed a lot of things that shit I've been there and things that she will see in other long-term boxers like short-term memory. despite being retired around this time. Even with all the injuries that he sustained he still tried to go back to the ring but this was futile. Forward he injured himself even more and ended up dying a couple months later because of complications he had. This book succeed in what it is trying to do because it has shed a lot of light on brain damage and is spreading awareness and knowledge to people who would have known nothing before.
September 11, 2016
In the beginning of the book, The Concussion Crisis: Anatomy of a Silent Epidemic the authors present cases of sports concussions. Cases are reviewed from pee wee sports through the profession level. They discussed how concussions occur in different sports and happen to both males and females. Then the book discusses concussions that happen in war, crime and accidents. The third section of the book talks about the science of concussions--how does the changes in the concussed brain show up in scans? This section also examines the brain injuries caused from boxing. Finally, the end of the book talks about concussions in the NFL and the controversy regarding its handling or rather mishandling.
This book immediately spiked my interest with the first case of Dave Showalter. He started playing tackle football in the 4th grade and because he was a big kid, he played in the position of an offensive lineman. In this position, he constantly bumped his head and had symptoms of experiencing concussions. He did not mention the issues he was having until they became unavoidable. He was knocked unconscious during a summer camp in high school. After this he decided to give up football and play basketball. Then he was told that several colleges were looking at him for football. Showalter decides to play football again, he earns a college scholarship but in practice before his 1st game, he suffers another concussion that changes his life forever. He is unable to play football again, finish college and perform routine tasks. This ending is repeated case after case with different sports to car accidents and war injuries. The book says girls and younger children are more susceptible. Concussion symptoms were ignored and misdiagnosed and the results ranged from cases that could be reversed if the brain had a chance to rest to death.
The symptoms of concussions were misdiagnosed because there were not scans/tests that were able to identify the damage to the brain. But if cases were identified prior to PET scans by the symptoms such as metallic taste in mouth, constant headaches, loss of memory and concentration and the concussions patients received immediate like sidelined for appropriate amount of time or rehab to retrain the brain patients could recover as in the case of the Central Park Jogger who sustained a very traumatic brain injury but because of immediate treatment/rehab, she was able to return to her former job in Finance while a lot of these patients could not perform 3rd grade math.
At book ends with the advancements that have been made in the identification and treatment of concussions. This book is a good resource for parents, coaches and children. I would highly recommend this book particularly for anyone interested in playing sports.
This book immediately spiked my interest with the first case of Dave Showalter. He started playing tackle football in the 4th grade and because he was a big kid, he played in the position of an offensive lineman. In this position, he constantly bumped his head and had symptoms of experiencing concussions. He did not mention the issues he was having until they became unavoidable. He was knocked unconscious during a summer camp in high school. After this he decided to give up football and play basketball. Then he was told that several colleges were looking at him for football. Showalter decides to play football again, he earns a college scholarship but in practice before his 1st game, he suffers another concussion that changes his life forever. He is unable to play football again, finish college and perform routine tasks. This ending is repeated case after case with different sports to car accidents and war injuries. The book says girls and younger children are more susceptible. Concussion symptoms were ignored and misdiagnosed and the results ranged from cases that could be reversed if the brain had a chance to rest to death.
The symptoms of concussions were misdiagnosed because there were not scans/tests that were able to identify the damage to the brain. But if cases were identified prior to PET scans by the symptoms such as metallic taste in mouth, constant headaches, loss of memory and concentration and the concussions patients received immediate like sidelined for appropriate amount of time or rehab to retrain the brain patients could recover as in the case of the Central Park Jogger who sustained a very traumatic brain injury but because of immediate treatment/rehab, she was able to return to her former job in Finance while a lot of these patients could not perform 3rd grade math.
At book ends with the advancements that have been made in the identification and treatment of concussions. This book is a good resource for parents, coaches and children. I would highly recommend this book particularly for anyone interested in playing sports.
August 19, 2016
"The Concussion Crisis" by Linda Carroll and David Rosner is a book that attempt to bring the "Silent Epidemic" of brain trauma into a serious light. The book uses real people and events to talk about the importance of brain injuries and concussions. One person they talk about is Leigh Steinburg, who was the agent for the NFL players Troy Aikman and Steve Young. Steinberg became aware and concerned for his clients when he visited Aikman in the hospital after his removal from a game due to head injury. Aikman asked the same question over and over again begin about what happened earlier that day. He forgot every time he was given an answer. The made Steinburg want to help his clients more than financially and try to get them help. This is one of many different real life examples this book brings into light.
I believe this book's strong points come from their evidence in real life examples. Like I said before about Steinburg wanting to help his clients with their constant brain injuries. Their are a lot of different characters brought up throughout the book. Each of them have a strong plot to them and a descriptive points through their troubles in life with their injuries. An example would be a girl named Anne Forrest who was an economist who got in a small fender bender that seemed like nothing, but created a domino affect to change down her life forever. She didn't get her head checked out right away and when she did that was several months. This made her mentally impaired to the point where she couldn't even put an outfit together for the next day or do second grade math.
This book also has strength in credibility. They show this by using boxer Jerry Quarry and his experiences with boxing. Jerry was beaten multiple times by Joe Frazier and Mahammad Ali. He took critical hits from both of them but his ever fighting, never quit spirit kept him going. This lead to his downfall when he did an article for sports illustrated about brain damage in boxers. his CAT scan revealed abnormalities commonly found in in long term boxers as well as short-term memory lost and problems with hand eye coordination. despite being retired around this time Quarry despite his injuries tries to make a comeback. The come back was in vain because his loss had a dire consequence. He loss the ability to take care of himself anymore and had to move in with his brother and later his mother before passing away due to complications of dementia- related pneumonia. All in all this book succeeds in what it was trying to do, which was bring a serious tone to brain injuries and concussions that wasn't being taken seriously until now.
I believe this book's strong points come from their evidence in real life examples. Like I said before about Steinburg wanting to help his clients with their constant brain injuries. Their are a lot of different characters brought up throughout the book. Each of them have a strong plot to them and a descriptive points through their troubles in life with their injuries. An example would be a girl named Anne Forrest who was an economist who got in a small fender bender that seemed like nothing, but created a domino affect to change down her life forever. She didn't get her head checked out right away and when she did that was several months. This made her mentally impaired to the point where she couldn't even put an outfit together for the next day or do second grade math.
This book also has strength in credibility. They show this by using boxer Jerry Quarry and his experiences with boxing. Jerry was beaten multiple times by Joe Frazier and Mahammad Ali. He took critical hits from both of them but his ever fighting, never quit spirit kept him going. This lead to his downfall when he did an article for sports illustrated about brain damage in boxers. his CAT scan revealed abnormalities commonly found in in long term boxers as well as short-term memory lost and problems with hand eye coordination. despite being retired around this time Quarry despite his injuries tries to make a comeback. The come back was in vain because his loss had a dire consequence. He loss the ability to take care of himself anymore and had to move in with his brother and later his mother before passing away due to complications of dementia- related pneumonia. All in all this book succeeds in what it was trying to do, which was bring a serious tone to brain injuries and concussions that wasn't being taken seriously until now.
January 4, 2017
The Concussion Crisis: Anatomy of a Silent Epidemic was an amazing insightful book. This book allowed the reader to dig deep into what was actually going on in the world of science that dealt with concussions. It allowed the reader to understand what a concussion actually was and what caused them. The book also told about the side effects from a concussion and what a person's day to day life was when dealing with a concussion. A concussion occurs when there are too many head to head contact between a person an another object. The book mostly touched on how football players were affected by the result of a concussion. And how most players, coaches, and parents are unaware of the real trauma a concussion can do to a person and their brain. The book told many different stories of how men in particular were after enduring a hard head collision. From high school athletes, National Football Players, to everyday men who were affected by such an injury. And in some cases the injury they sustained changed their lives forever.
All in all I personally think the book was outstandingly written. The author was able to tell stories of science and still make them interesting. It gave a none knowing person, get an idea of what a concussion was. It informed me who concussion made people feel and how they would react to things after they had a concussion. After reading this book it felt like I was actually in a class learning from a teacher about concussions. From the way the author wrote the story to the amazingly detailed descriptions of what occurred in these certain scenarios. I truly feel like this was a great informative book, while also having the appeal of a good mystery book. It kept me wanting to flip the page and read more and more about each chapter.
I would recommend this book to all people but most importantly everyone that knows someone involved in sports. For example this would be a great read for a parent of a student athlete. Because it will give you the knowledge to know what dangers your child will be facing on a daily basis with the sport the h/she is playing. It will also be a benefit for the athlete themselves to read. It will notify you on what you are signing yourself up for and what it is that you could possible expect. Another person that will benefit from this book is coaches and professional team owners. The book will help you teach your athletes the right way to do what they are doing and how to keep them from getting into harm's way while playing the sport.
All in all I personally think the book was outstandingly written. The author was able to tell stories of science and still make them interesting. It gave a none knowing person, get an idea of what a concussion was. It informed me who concussion made people feel and how they would react to things after they had a concussion. After reading this book it felt like I was actually in a class learning from a teacher about concussions. From the way the author wrote the story to the amazingly detailed descriptions of what occurred in these certain scenarios. I truly feel like this was a great informative book, while also having the appeal of a good mystery book. It kept me wanting to flip the page and read more and more about each chapter.
I would recommend this book to all people but most importantly everyone that knows someone involved in sports. For example this would be a great read for a parent of a student athlete. Because it will give you the knowledge to know what dangers your child will be facing on a daily basis with the sport the h/she is playing. It will also be a benefit for the athlete themselves to read. It will notify you on what you are signing yourself up for and what it is that you could possible expect. Another person that will benefit from this book is coaches and professional team owners. The book will help you teach your athletes the right way to do what they are doing and how to keep them from getting into harm's way while playing the sport.
September 12, 2016
The Concussion Crises is thrill ride of a book that leaves reader's both entertained and scarred of at the same time. Cases of people who were suffering from this terrible brain injury have gone through many troubles with losing their drive to do the things they loved, having their lives being forcefully changed mostly for the worse. Some of these cases will leave you questioning how anyone could live their normal lives like this after fighting this life changing fase that withers people down into nothing. *This book also teaches the importance of speaking up about people who are silently be threatened by this case of brain injury. If you or someone else is suffering from major brain injury symptoms and have kept silent about it, please speak up because being silent isn't going to help and suffering from these occurrences can be a big life changer for you negatively. Please speak up and spread awareness to anyone keeping quiet about their symptoms.*
While reading I was most intrigued by the character Melissa's story. She had the drive of a raging, reckless bull and loved soccer so much. After being caught between a brain injury because of her reckless play style, she lost her motivation to move on in even playing soccer. Year's later she became a coach herself and whenever someone had a brain injury she would take them off the field in hopes they do not suffer as she did before and even teach them about the seriousness in brain injuries. Melissa character I felt was really crafted well in this chapter. She suffered back in her college years and went on to become a soccer coach herself and brought along the same experience to her players. She showed a more careful and responsible care for the others around her teached off of her injury to encourage this. It showed more depth to her character that I liked to make sure everyone was safe from suffering the same like her.
The Concussion Crises not only shows us people who became victims of this silent case, but also showed how easy one concussion could change your life. The awareness this book shows in It's true meaning gives everyone from kids to adults a good read into the environment of concussions. I would recommend this book to anyone, especially athletes since this case is more common in that general category. Something that all sports should pay attention to before going out on the field being reckless.
While reading I was most intrigued by the character Melissa's story. She had the drive of a raging, reckless bull and loved soccer so much. After being caught between a brain injury because of her reckless play style, she lost her motivation to move on in even playing soccer. Year's later she became a coach herself and whenever someone had a brain injury she would take them off the field in hopes they do not suffer as she did before and even teach them about the seriousness in brain injuries. Melissa character I felt was really crafted well in this chapter. She suffered back in her college years and went on to become a soccer coach herself and brought along the same experience to her players. She showed a more careful and responsible care for the others around her teached off of her injury to encourage this. It showed more depth to her character that I liked to make sure everyone was safe from suffering the same like her.
The Concussion Crises not only shows us people who became victims of this silent case, but also showed how easy one concussion could change your life. The awareness this book shows in It's true meaning gives everyone from kids to adults a good read into the environment of concussions. I would recommend this book to anyone, especially athletes since this case is more common in that general category. Something that all sports should pay attention to before going out on the field being reckless.
September 5, 2016
“The Concussion Crisis” by Linda Caroll and David Rosner is about different athletes getting concussions and how the athletes deal with their concussions. As you can guess some of these athletes are football players, but other athletes include boxers, hockey players, and basketball players. All of these athletes had a major concussion that affected their career in the long run. Instead of telling someone about their concussion,the athlete's instead tried to play the injury off making the condition more worse. Not only were athletes involved, but war veterans were involved too having concussions from the war.
I felt the authors supporting stories with the athlete’s made the story strong. A story that really stuck to me was Dave Showalter, who was a rising college football star, but his concussion injury ended his career. “He played the next season for Rutgers without being sidelined by concussions, but his transcript was starting to reflect their impact” ( Carroll and Rosner 7). “He was embarrassed by his grades and depressed” “Unable to count on his brain anymore he decided to drop out of school” (Carroll and Rosner 7). This shows what happens when you try to continue playing when you're advised not to, now Dave has nothing. The tone the two authors had were very informative which helped understand more about the book and concussions themselves. Although there were many things I liked about the book, there were a few things I didn’t like.
One thing I didn’t like with the book was it started to get too long for the authors to explain certain things. I don’t like to get to the end of a chapter to finally understand what someone is saying, I rather find out in the middle of a chapter. I didn’t like how the book wasn’t organized between different sports and veterans. For ex. The authors would talk about football then transition into war veterans then back to another sport. I personally think it would be better if the authors went from sport to sport, then war story to war story. That way it would all be connected and less confusing, at least to me it would. These were the only two things I didn’t like about the book, other than that the book was great and everything was fine.
I felt the authors supporting stories with the athlete’s made the story strong. A story that really stuck to me was Dave Showalter, who was a rising college football star, but his concussion injury ended his career. “He played the next season for Rutgers without being sidelined by concussions, but his transcript was starting to reflect their impact” ( Carroll and Rosner 7). “He was embarrassed by his grades and depressed” “Unable to count on his brain anymore he decided to drop out of school” (Carroll and Rosner 7). This shows what happens when you try to continue playing when you're advised not to, now Dave has nothing. The tone the two authors had were very informative which helped understand more about the book and concussions themselves. Although there were many things I liked about the book, there were a few things I didn’t like.
One thing I didn’t like with the book was it started to get too long for the authors to explain certain things. I don’t like to get to the end of a chapter to finally understand what someone is saying, I rather find out in the middle of a chapter. I didn’t like how the book wasn’t organized between different sports and veterans. For ex. The authors would talk about football then transition into war veterans then back to another sport. I personally think it would be better if the authors went from sport to sport, then war story to war story. That way it would all be connected and less confusing, at least to me it would. These were the only two things I didn’t like about the book, other than that the book was great and everything was fine.
September 8, 2016
“The Concussion Crisis: Anatomy of a silent epidemic” is a book that brings the light to an injury that rarely gets attention that it is considered invisible yet it is so common in the world of sports. The symptoms of concussions are not always visible immediate. The book also talks about how repeated concussions can bring much worse health problems later in life such as memory loss, nerve damage and loss of brain abilities. In a way concussions take away our ability to be the ourselves. There are precautions that can be taken to prevent concussions in sports yet they are not taken because people believe that they would affect the sport itself. To display the hidden evil the book uses stories from doctors and scientist who look deeper into how concussions can bring so much damage. Along with those stories there are stories of people whose lives were drastically changed all because of the effects of a concussion. Overall The Concussion Crisis is generally a wake up call to everyone especially parents, coaches, athletic trainers, doctors and even athletes.
One thing I liked about the book was how the authors went into the stories of not only the scientist and doctors that study concussion but also the players whose lives we changed because of concussions. For example the high school football player, the soccer player and the economist. I feel that this takes the science article feel away from it and applies a more human touch to it allowing the reader to connect with the people’s stories. This connection refocused the reader in my opinion because there is a lot of factual information packed inside the novel that there are moments where someone can lose focus.
Another thing that I liked was the overall focus of the book. It brings attention to an issue that is easily overlooked as “just a bump on the head”. Many people are uneducated on the many many health issues that this “simple bump on the head” can bring. I feel that the novel was effective with its purpose on trying to get others to rethink their beliefs on concussions and perhaps even try to come together to find a solution that doesn’t compromise the sport while still keeping the safety of the players.
One thing I liked about the book was how the authors went into the stories of not only the scientist and doctors that study concussion but also the players whose lives we changed because of concussions. For example the high school football player, the soccer player and the economist. I feel that this takes the science article feel away from it and applies a more human touch to it allowing the reader to connect with the people’s stories. This connection refocused the reader in my opinion because there is a lot of factual information packed inside the novel that there are moments where someone can lose focus.
Another thing that I liked was the overall focus of the book. It brings attention to an issue that is easily overlooked as “just a bump on the head”. Many people are uneducated on the many many health issues that this “simple bump on the head” can bring. I feel that the novel was effective with its purpose on trying to get others to rethink their beliefs on concussions and perhaps even try to come together to find a solution that doesn’t compromise the sport while still keeping the safety of the players.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 10, 2013
I almost gave this book 4 stars, because in addition to being wonderfully informative, the author does a great job of giving this problem a human face, so much so that you wince with the families of those affected when they are hit again. This book is about what has been learned about concussions over time. In the same tradition as The Emperor of All Maladies, this book starts tells the story of concussions in FOOTBALL--starting before the 1900s when they didn't even wear helmets and the violence was so pronounced that Teddy Roosevelt, as president, stepped in to push some safety measures and gear on football--in BOXING, starting again more than a 100 years ago and discussing some of the greats that even I have heard of as well as many who I have not heard of and how those greats WERE great, but that greatness was their downfall in an early and not pleasant end to their lives--and in HOCKEY where new safety measures are attempting to protect the heads of players. The author takes you through how we've attempted to protect the brain and how we can't. We learn how the early damage is compounded exponentially with later damage and why so many of our top athletes retire "early"...when in fact, many get out too late. The writing is engaging and interesting and so I can recommend it highly.
I took away one star, because I felt like several important details were not well covered. At some point in the book, the author mentions that there are 16,000 retired NFL players, but gives no indication what percentage of those players are actually suffering from post-concussion syndrome, so while ALL players can be hurt, the book doesn't say how many actually are...how rare is this? She does cover the fact that NFL players are 5 times more likely to receive a diagnosis of dementia far earlier than the general population, but that doesn't tell me that they ARE. The same is true for boxers and hockey players. Clearly there is a problem, but I was curious exactly how widespread the problem was and I didn't feel like the authors covered that.
I took away one star, because I felt like several important details were not well covered. At some point in the book, the author mentions that there are 16,000 retired NFL players, but gives no indication what percentage of those players are actually suffering from post-concussion syndrome, so while ALL players can be hurt, the book doesn't say how many actually are...how rare is this? She does cover the fact that NFL players are 5 times more likely to receive a diagnosis of dementia far earlier than the general population, but that doesn't tell me that they ARE. The same is true for boxers and hockey players. Clearly there is a problem, but I was curious exactly how widespread the problem was and I didn't feel like the authors covered that.
September 9, 2016
The Concussion Crisis by David Rosner and Linda Carroll is a book about concussion and how people suffered from them. This book had many examples of people suffering from a concussion in many different types of ways. The following examples are car crashes, major football hits, major boxing hits, and etc. There are many people that talked about it. One person for example Leigh Steinberg who mainly talked about his concerned for his players every time he would visit Troy aikman in the hospital. Or even Chari and Chris who talked about Chari concussion and how she suffered from it. So, there are many people who suffered from concussions and people who saw people suffer from concussions that shared about their experience.
The book is very engageable because of all the compelling points it gave in the book. In which, meaning that the points were strong because of the real life examples that were given. And, if it wasn’t for the authors for giving those compelling points the book probably wouldn’t have been pretty good. Like when they talked about the situation of boxers suffering from concussion. In the world eyes the boxer could be living a fantastic life as though for the boxer eyes it really isn’t so fantastic.
The book was also, a great learning experience. The reason why is because it help people learn about the way of people not only suffering from a concussion physically, but mentally. The way it shows it is by giving example of different people who were physically hurt and not only that, but mentally too. Like Muhammad Ali. Which is why the book is very interesting in many ways.
The book is very engageable because of all the compelling points it gave in the book. In which, meaning that the points were strong because of the real life examples that were given. And, if it wasn’t for the authors for giving those compelling points the book probably wouldn’t have been pretty good. Like when they talked about the situation of boxers suffering from concussion. In the world eyes the boxer could be living a fantastic life as though for the boxer eyes it really isn’t so fantastic.
The book was also, a great learning experience. The reason why is because it help people learn about the way of people not only suffering from a concussion physically, but mentally. The way it shows it is by giving example of different people who were physically hurt and not only that, but mentally too. Like Muhammad Ali. Which is why the book is very interesting in many ways.
September 15, 2016
The book "The Concussion Crisis" I would say is a good book. It has all the information you would want to know about concussions in it. It goes through in detail of all the things that can come from concussions and brain damage. These are some serious medical issues that the books states it needs to be addressed. While they also go through the negligence of the coaches and players that receive concussions. The long term affects are also mentioned in the book, it shows how people lives have been changed due to one accident. The book is spreading information on concussions to raise awareness.
I thought the plot of the story was clear and obvious to see. I will also note that the rest of the structure of the book wasn't the best. I felt that the book seemed to jump around after reading a certain length of it. This slowly brought on a big storm of confusion for me. I didn't like that I felt I had to keep going back a page or two to remember where I was. Just to double check and make sure I wasn't on a completely different person. I seen that as one of the major problems of the book itself.
I truly like how the book was staying focus on football players. I thought since they have a lot of head on clashes that it would be something to talk about a lot more than anything else. I found that it would be very informational and will strike people attention. It did strike my attention as I first started reading the book. I wanted to know all of the ways people could receive concussions during football. I was well informed with plenty of examples of what happened and how it happened. Overall I thought the book was great and pretty informational and very wordy.
I thought the plot of the story was clear and obvious to see. I will also note that the rest of the structure of the book wasn't the best. I felt that the book seemed to jump around after reading a certain length of it. This slowly brought on a big storm of confusion for me. I didn't like that I felt I had to keep going back a page or two to remember where I was. Just to double check and make sure I wasn't on a completely different person. I seen that as one of the major problems of the book itself.
I truly like how the book was staying focus on football players. I thought since they have a lot of head on clashes that it would be something to talk about a lot more than anything else. I found that it would be very informational and will strike people attention. It did strike my attention as I first started reading the book. I wanted to know all of the ways people could receive concussions during football. I was well informed with plenty of examples of what happened and how it happened. Overall I thought the book was great and pretty informational and very wordy.
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September 11, 2016The Concussion Crisis Anatomy of a Silent Epidemic is a book that focuses of the largely unseen epidemic of concussions. The book informs the reader about what causes the concussions and what happens to the brain. Throughout the book the authors tells the stories of big athletes and regular people that had concussions. They described the symptoms that the people had and how it affected their life. A lot of the stories were sad because they were losing their mind. But they doctors to help them.
I really like the stories in the book but over time they were getting old. It seems that every chapter was another sad story. Don’t get me wrong they were really interesting especially the ones where the person didn't know why they were losing their memory and having other symptoms. My favorite stories was about the soldier that got bombed and pieces of shrapnel got stuck in his head. He survived but he lost his memory. I read how his wife tried to help him get his memory back. I wish that they would tell more about what happens within the brain.
Overall I would rate the book a 7 out o 10. Despite the overbearing sad stories the book was very informative. It opened my eyes to what can happen to anyone. I would recommend that all football players should have to read this. I think it would make them more aware of what can happen. And it might make people notice that somebody some of the symptoms and you can tell them that they need to go to the doctors. So after reading this book I now know more than I ever have about concussions.
September 14, 2016
Concussion is an interesting look into the dangers of head injuries. This book gives tons of info on many people who have sustained head injuries, and detailed how messed up they were afterwards. Eventually we meet a doctor named Omalu who has figured out that there is a lot more to these head injuries than we know now. Using this new info he fights to get organizations like the NFL to look more into this subject and address it rather than ignoring it.
I loved how much info this book gave you on head injuries. It shows you how truly traumatic something like that can be for a person. Seeing the results of head injuries on athletes, and seeing the long term effects really make you want to know exactly why this subject isn’t brought up more. Especially when you have cases of people who have lost their motor skills due to sustain this type of injury. For example the case with a certain patient who was so badly damaged he needed to taze himself just to put himself to sleep.
I really enjoyed this book. I think anyone who is curious about the dangers of concussions should definitely check it out. It gives really good insight on this subject and questions people on the amount of safety we try to give ourselves and others. When seeing the process of Omalu finding out that it was more to concessions with effecting people long term, you really start to get engaged with seeing how the NFL address this problem. Hopefully more action will be taken as time goes on.
I loved how much info this book gave you on head injuries. It shows you how truly traumatic something like that can be for a person. Seeing the results of head injuries on athletes, and seeing the long term effects really make you want to know exactly why this subject isn’t brought up more. Especially when you have cases of people who have lost their motor skills due to sustain this type of injury. For example the case with a certain patient who was so badly damaged he needed to taze himself just to put himself to sleep.
I really enjoyed this book. I think anyone who is curious about the dangers of concussions should definitely check it out. It gives really good insight on this subject and questions people on the amount of safety we try to give ourselves and others. When seeing the process of Omalu finding out that it was more to concessions with effecting people long term, you really start to get engaged with seeing how the NFL address this problem. Hopefully more action will be taken as time goes on.
September 7, 2016
The book “The Concussion Crisis Anatomy of a Silent Epidemic” is a Non-Fiction Masterpiece. This book tells multiple stories on concussions that will change your understanding. It’s reviews things from football to boxing. It has famous people such as Muhammad Ali and many other people within. It also feature many points in which seem normal and breaks it down to where you are getting what’s happening to a greater understanding.
Since this book talks about mainly stories’ about what happens with and what’s so different. It seems to describe how you body reacts with one to many concussions. And also show what a concussion could possibly feel like. With the many specific details this book gives you you’ll concussions in and out. You will pretty much have almost no problem, It’s like reading this will make a concussions specialist.
There is a few cons about this book in a way. It is kinda redundant, it’s like you know what's going to happen at the start of every new story. Which is tried to be fixed by spicing it up with different ways, think of the same story told by just different people. But overall most of the time you will learn something new with each section. This is a good Non-Fiction book about concussions and it will give you much insight on concussions which is a major problem.
Since this book talks about mainly stories’ about what happens with and what’s so different. It seems to describe how you body reacts with one to many concussions. And also show what a concussion could possibly feel like. With the many specific details this book gives you you’ll concussions in and out. You will pretty much have almost no problem, It’s like reading this will make a concussions specialist.
There is a few cons about this book in a way. It is kinda redundant, it’s like you know what's going to happen at the start of every new story. Which is tried to be fixed by spicing it up with different ways, think of the same story told by just different people. But overall most of the time you will learn something new with each section. This is a good Non-Fiction book about concussions and it will give you much insight on concussions which is a major problem.
September 15, 2016
The concoction crisis is about a collection of stories about people who got hit in the meathead people of this book got the life changed drastically. The book shows how getting hit in the head can really impact a persons life.It gives you grate examples of people who were to recess. also general stories on how it impacted people negatively.
The book i feel was a little repetitive for the first three hours. things like "just getting your bell rung" is through out the book. that phrase was used to down play a concussion by coaches and players. i feel like the first 3 hours of the audio book was really annoying hearing that phrase so many times. I feel that Its very repetitive A football player occasionally a basket ball player herts them selves and there lives changed.
Do i still recommend it?Yes.After the first 3 hours it got a lot better.Its very educational I learned alot. Its made me rethink what kinds of sports i should play if i deside to play any at all.What I do i know is that i'm going to need to be careful and make better choices in terms of being on the field.
Simply Put I learned allot.
The book i feel was a little repetitive for the first three hours. things like "just getting your bell rung" is through out the book. that phrase was used to down play a concussion by coaches and players. i feel like the first 3 hours of the audio book was really annoying hearing that phrase so many times. I feel that Its very repetitive A football player occasionally a basket ball player herts them selves and there lives changed.
Do i still recommend it?Yes.After the first 3 hours it got a lot better.Its very educational I learned alot. Its made me rethink what kinds of sports i should play if i deside to play any at all.What I do i know is that i'm going to need to be careful and make better choices in terms of being on the field.
Simply Put I learned allot.
March 9, 2016
As someone who has sustained multiple concussions, and is receiving ongoing treatment for executive dysfunction, this book was both relieving and terrifying.
The only reason I knocked off a star was that the structure of the book, which relies on inserting critical findings within personal stories, can be a little confusing. Near the end of each section, the next section is related to/introduced in a sort of "6 steps from Kevin Bacon" manner, such as when the transition from the first boxer documented to another went through a common location to bring up Cassius Clay, AKA Muhammad Ali. While some of these were pretty easy to follow, it was also on occasion confusing, and when it would be a tie back to an much earlier section I would have to spend time trying to not have people mixed up in my head.
Overall, though, this is an amazing and horrifying book I would gladly and strongly recommend reading.
The only reason I knocked off a star was that the structure of the book, which relies on inserting critical findings within personal stories, can be a little confusing. Near the end of each section, the next section is related to/introduced in a sort of "6 steps from Kevin Bacon" manner, such as when the transition from the first boxer documented to another went through a common location to bring up Cassius Clay, AKA Muhammad Ali. While some of these were pretty easy to follow, it was also on occasion confusing, and when it would be a tie back to an much earlier section I would have to spend time trying to not have people mixed up in my head.
Overall, though, this is an amazing and horrifying book I would gladly and strongly recommend reading.
October 18, 2014
Motivated to read this book because my daughter got a concussion in gym class last week (and hid the symptoms for more than 48 hours because she didn't want to miss her marching band competition).
So much of this book is spent making the case for better concussion management, but I was hoping for more details about what actually happens inside the brain and the optimal treatment. I did learn a lot and am much more knowledgeable about concussions, but my knowledge is only really close to what I was hoping to learn from this book. I will say that I didn't know concussions were quite so damaging, but that I probably didn't need quite so many horrifying stories to convert my into believing the dangers of concussions.
So much of this book is spent making the case for better concussion management, but I was hoping for more details about what actually happens inside the brain and the optimal treatment. I did learn a lot and am much more knowledgeable about concussions, but my knowledge is only really close to what I was hoping to learn from this book. I will say that I didn't know concussions were quite so damaging, but that I probably didn't need quite so many horrifying stories to convert my into believing the dangers of concussions.
September 13, 2016
The Concussion Crisis Anatomy of a Silent Epidemic by Linda Carroll and David Rosner is an informational book. The conflict in the book is the dangers of concussions. People ignore the seriousness of them and it can be very deadly. The book informs the reader of many different people that have had concussions. Many of these people have had very negative outcomes because of them. They didn’t take it serious and it made it worse.
The book is very clear and focused on concussions. It never strays away from that subject. It goes in depth of what has happened to people that got them. The quality of the information given is very good. It’s credible and it’s easy to comprehend the main idea. I recommend this book to Athletes, parents, and coaches.
The book is very clear and focused on concussions. It never strays away from that subject. It goes in depth of what has happened to people that got them. The quality of the information given is very good. It’s credible and it’s easy to comprehend the main idea. I recommend this book to Athletes, parents, and coaches.
November 1, 2011
An incredibly important subject, with a less than perfect treatment by the authors. The individual profiles, many of them of NFL football players, are strung together without a coherent structure. The passage on the neuroscience of sports concussions comes relatively late in the book. The reader is left wondering at allusions to the implications of the concussion studies beyond professional football. There are frightening allusions to how they might apply to children's and high school sports, but little amplification. Still, an important book that should help to further a national discussion.
November 17, 2013
I read this book for the 2013-2014 MUHSD Battle of the Books.
I honestly liked this book, but I felt like it could have been better. I would have preferred more science to balance out the deluge of anecdotes. Like I said in a status update, I felt example/anecdote fatigue while reading. I do understand the need for all the examples because people need to know all the variety of ways that brains can be injured. Nevertheless, I grew a little bored by the boxing chapter.
I think that this is an extremely important topic that merits more attention; I just wish that the authors found a different rhythm for the information. Balance the stories wi.th more science
I honestly liked this book, but I felt like it could have been better. I would have preferred more science to balance out the deluge of anecdotes. Like I said in a status update, I felt example/anecdote fatigue while reading. I do understand the need for all the examples because people need to know all the variety of ways that brains can be injured. Nevertheless, I grew a little bored by the boxing chapter.
I think that this is an extremely important topic that merits more attention; I just wish that the authors found a different rhythm for the information. Balance the stories wi.th more science
July 2, 2015
This book presented a lot of information in an engaging way. I have been a Certified Brain Injury Specialist, I'm a member of the Brain Injury Association of America, worked in brain injury rehab for many years, and I've experienced multiple concussions myself. This book still presented me with new information, and a new perspective. Even with my background, I shrugged off my own concussions, refusing to see a doctor even when I'd been knocked out. Had I read this before, I'm certain I would have taken the injury more seriously.
I highly recommend this to anyone.. Everyone, actually. Concussions need to be treated as seriously and quickly as strokes or heart attacks.
I highly recommend this to anyone.. Everyone, actually. Concussions need to be treated as seriously and quickly as strokes or heart attacks.
February 17, 2012
I've become interested in concussion science ever since I had a serious one this summer. I think this is definitely a book with a bias-- you'll come away thinking everyone on earth who's ever bumped their heads has a TBI (traumatic brain injury) leaving them certain to face early dementia. But on the other hand, concussions really are serious business (as I well know) and the story of how science caught up to the high incidence of brain injury in boxing and football, particularly, is quite interesting.
May 14, 2014
I think this is a relevant book for anyone involved in youth sports. It aims to develop a dialog about concussions and their consequences and I feel it did achieve that purpose. Unfortunately, I believe that many are in denial about the potential severity of traumatic brain injuries and the ones likely to read this are those already suffering TBI or their loved ones that are trying to support them. I still feel this provides a good wake-up call and may be helpful in beginning a local cultural change within one's community of youth sports.
April 12, 2016
The book started out as eye-opening, but I would have preferred it had it focused more on the sports institutions and their complacent attitude toward concussions, and less on telling the same miserable stories over and over again. Repeated blows to the head cause exponential brain damage, and the effects are devastating, but there's only so many times I care to hear the story of a life falling apart. I've ended up not finishing it as we've gotten to the section on boxing and its constant damage, because it's just too repetitive to be as engaging as I want it to be.
November 8, 2019
Eye opening! We need to recognize how vulnerable we are to head injury and that microscopic damage accumulates even if you haven’t had a serious concussion. I hadn't heard before that Mohammed Ali's Parkinson's was related to blows to his head.
Excellent information, let’s spread the word!
Excellent information, let’s spread the word!
October 24, 2011
couldn't put it down. great book.
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