Athletes who take a serious blow to the head on the field, court or ice should see a doctor immediately and leave the game for the day if they lose consciousness or have persistent or delayed symptoms, according to new concussion guidelines based on the latest scientific research and endorsed by six major medical organizations.

If their symptoms last more than 15 minutes, the guidelines say, athletes need to be monitored for up to a week and return to competition gradually based on tolerance of increasing physical demands. If their symptoms worsen, they should head straight for the emergency room. "Just because an athlete says he or she 'feels fine'

As our teenagers grow older, their sports and recreation activities get a little rougher. Since they are at an age where risk taking behavior is the norm and growth spurts can make them a bit clumsy, injuries tend to occur more often than with adults. Quite frequently, they'll hit their head (direct blow) or crash into something with their body (indirect blow). Both of these types of incidents can cause a concussion.

Noting that the concussion syndrome covers a range of symptoms and severity, Gennarelli, suggests that there are two broad categories of concussion: mild concussion, without loss of consciousness and characterized by symptoms such as seeing stars, if the injury was focal, and or a short period of confusion and disorientation with or without amnesia for a brief time before and or after the event; and classic concussion, defined by reversible coma, occurring at the instant of trauma, which may be accompanied by cardiovascular and pulmonary function changes and neurological abnormalities.

Physicians will tell you that there is little that can be done for a concussion other than rest. However, the physician is trained to look for signs that the concussion may also involve a hemorrhage. There are many tiny blood vessels in the brain that can be severed by the same forces that cause the concussion. For this reason, someone with a concussion should be carefully watched for any possible deterioration in function.

Sometimes, with a severe concussion, there may be bleeding inside of the head or bruising of the delicate brain. Usually someone with a bad head injury will have symptoms of a moderate or severe concussion - such as being knocked out for longer than a few minutes, acting very confused (unable to remember the names of people or places, and sometimes even their own name!), vomiting repeatedly, or having a bad headache.

I have been really lucky playing as many sports as I do to not receiving a concussion. You simply can not control when or where it is going to happen. I play baseball soccer and basketball all for teams. My friend Ryan just was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He does not even play sports. He was extremely lucky though because it could have been a lot worse. The quick thinking of the other people could have saved Ryan a lot of pain.

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