Teen’s concussion wipes years from her memory, brings awareness to severity

Imagine you were hit on the head and transported years into the future; people grew older, had babies, got divorced or separated and moved away, pets died and technology advanced, but you weren’t there for any of it, and you can’t comprehend why.

That’s how Amber Chaplin feels. A month ago, the 13-year-old girl was athletic, funny, outgoing, smart and quick-witted. She will be again, her doctors say, but it’s going to be a long road. The middle school student suffered a severe concussion on Aug. 22 when a teammate fell on her head during cheer practice at Speedway Junior High School.

Within hours, her coaches and family members knew something was wrong. Usually the loudest cheerleader of the bunch, she wasn’t cheering. She became flushed. Eventually, she started crying and told the coaches her head hurt. On the way home from practice, she barely spoke. When she got home, she sat in complete darkness and stared at a wall, said Angela Chaplin, her mother and a guidance counselor at Center Grove High School.

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Her parents decided to take her to a nearby emergency room, where doctors confirmed she had a concussion and ran several tests to determine the severity, expecting the worst, Angela Chaplin said.

But Amber’s case is unique. Despite losing much of her short-term memory, there was no physical damage to her brain. She was released from the hospital later that night and referred to a doctor who specializes in sports medicine.

“When we first saw the doctor, I said, ‘Dude, this is what you do for a living. How severe is this, and have you seen someone this bad?’” Angela Chaplin said. “He said he had, but he hadn’t seen someone this bad walk into his office not needing surgery.”

Recovering what’s lost

In the days that followed, the severity of the teen’s concussion became more clear.

Amber knew she was a student, but she didn’t know where. In fact, she thought she was still in elementary school. She drew a light bulb and a butterfly, then asked her mom what they were. Her hands are magic, she said. She didn’t know she had siblings, or what their names were, but she could tell you about their favorite candy.

Last she could remember, her friend’s mom was pregnant. When that family came to visit her in the early days of her recovery, she was upset she missed the baby’s birth. That “baby” is in first grade.

Years of her memory are missing.

In other cases this severe, patients have often suffered brain bleeds or skull fractures and need emergency surgery, said Dr. Joel Boaz, Chaplin’s doctor, a neurosurgeon at Methodist Sports Medicine in Indianapolis. That wasn’t the case with Amber. Multiple scans came back clean, he said.

“With most concussions, the CT scans would be normal. All that really means is that there is nothing surgical or critical, but that does not mean that the patient is fine,” Dr. Boaz said.

It is common for concussions to cause temporary brain dysfunction, memory loss, light sensitivity, sound sensitivity, persistent headaches, dizziness, fatigue and nausea. But in most cases, those symptoms fade within hours or days, he said.

“It’s almost as though this happened years ago. One thing we are trying to do is acquaint her, in a gentle way, with the way things are now, to give her a sort of reality check,” Boaz said.

Per the doctor’s recommendation, Amber’s father was planning to take her to school during after-school hours so she could see her classroom and maybe some of her teachers in hopes that it would spark some memories, he said.

Boaz has worked with concussion patients for decades. He became interested in concussions after his own son suffered one during a rugby match. He’s seen hundreds of concussion patients, but he has only seen cases such as Amber’s a handful of times, he said. Patients with what you would think of as typical concussions usually recover within hours or days. Patients with more severe head injuries usually require surgeries and therapies to fully recover.

“There are not many true concussions where we see someone so slow to recover,” Boaz said.

Still, he remains confident she will.

Concussions in youth sports are particularly concerning as evidence suggests that the earlier in life a concussion is experienced, the higher the likelihood of having prolonged complications due to the fact that an adolescent’s brain is still developing. Oftentimes, those long-term problems don’t appear as abnormalities on an MRI, but require neuropsychological testing, he said.

While Amber has lost a significant chunk of her memory and is struggling to remember how to brush her teeth, read and connect words with images, she can do basic math and play complex card games with ease.

“She is able to do some things phenomenally well. If you give her a number with six digits, she can tell it to you backwards,” Dr. Boaz said. “But when it comes to things like daily living, she is struggling to get back what she should.”

Baby steps

Weeks later, she’s made small strides.

She relearned how to let the dogs outside, from what cues to watch for that tell her they need to go out and come back in, to pushing the lever up and down to lock and unlock the back sliding door. She does this now without being prompted, Angela Chaplin said.

She’s drawing anything and everything that pops into her head, including images and words, as reminders for herself. She’s scared she will forget again if she doesn’t, Chaplin said.

She’s beating her family at Euchre, Shanghai and Yahtzee, which she picks up on almost immediately. But she still can’t read. And every day, they have to remind her how to brush her teeth, from locating the tube in the medicine cabinet, to opening the lid, to actually putting the paste on the toothbrush. It’s smooth sailing from there, she said.

“Ma … umm … can I … umm … water,” Chaplin said, describing the way Amber spoke days after she came home from the hospital. It was slow and sluggish, as were her physical movements, she said.

“Keep in mind where we’ve come from. We’ve come from complete darkness, staring at a wall, to now actually carrying on a conversation,” she said.

When Chaplin gave Amber her cell phone back, she was thrilled, but mostly fascinated by the pop socket on the back — it appeared she had never seen one before, Chaplin said, but she had had it since April. She proceeded to show everyone who visited that day how cool it was.

“This is the third week. If she stays where she’s at, who knows what’s ahead for us. Right now, she can’t even be at home alone. She can’t fix her own meals. She doesn’t know where to find deodorant or how to apply it,” Chaplin said.

Family strains and strengths

Neither Chaplin nor her husband were able to take leaves of absence from work, so their parents and family friends are helping, splitting shifts during the week to take care of Amber.

They don’t know how long they will have to do that, she said.

“Three weeks in, I’m dying. When is this going to be over?,” Chaplin said on Monday.

Every concussion is different, every recovery is different, doctors tell them. She gets that, she’s seen it, and she doesn’t doubt that Amber will make a full recovery. But she still struggles not knowing what to expect and when, she said.

“I’m blessed that this is all. I thank God that something more severe didn’t happen. But what the heck am I going to do? I have two other kids at home who all love and do sports. This has slowed us down drastically.”

They’re not sure yet when she will return to school. At this rate, it may not be this school year, Chaplin said. The first week Amber was out, the school called and asked if they should send any of Amber’s homework or books home. Chaplin laughed at the question, she said, but as a counselor, she understood the question.

“I’m a counselor at a high school. I see concussions every day. You’re thinking two weeks and they’re back to school,” she said.

That is not a likely scenario for Amber due to the severity of her concussion.

“When she does go back, if she doesn’t talk to someone, it won’t be because she doesn’t like them, it will be because she doesn’t know them. It’s like starting over. A lot of her friends and teachers, they are not ringing a bell for her, and these are people she would see everyday,” Chaplin said.

The school has been more than supportive and accommodating to Amber’s needs, she said.

“I say this because I don’t think many schools are,” Chaplin said.

‘Just have faith’

The family is sharing Amber’s story to bring awareness to the prevalence and severity of concussions, and the fact that they don’t just occur in the most aggressive contact sports, such as rugby, hockey and football.

“We see folks in cheerleading and tennis, even track and field. I’ve seen youngsters (who) slipped on the ice and struck their head,” Boaz said. “It is not limited to the sports that one typically thinks of when they think of a concussion. It can happen in other sports or non-sport activities.”

They’re also sharing her story to let families who may experience the same scary situation know that it will be OK. Despite the severity of Amber’s condition, Chaplin knows her daughter will get better. She knows others who have suffered similar severe concussions and made full recoveries, she said.

Angela Chaplin met with a college junior on Thursday who suffered a concussion similar to Amber’s when she was a freshman in high school. It took her about a year and a half to recover. The young woman explained that her memory is like Swiss cheese, most everything is there, but there are still a few holes, she told her.

“It is conversations like these that give us hope and keep us going,” Chaplin said.

“Just have faith. I’m a pretty spiritual person, so I put a lot of faith in God. We’ve had our fair share of trials, tribulations and struggles. I’m assuming he’ll pull us through this one, too.”

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"When she does go back, if she doesn’t talk to someone, it won’t be because she doesn’t like them, it will be because she doesn’t know them. It’s like starting over. A lot of her friends and teachers, they are not ringing a bell for her, and these are people she would see everyday."

— Angela Chaplin

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What is a concussion?

A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury—or TBI—caused by a bump, blow or jolt to the head or by a hit to the body that causes the head and brain to move rapidly back and forth, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

What are the symptoms?

Headache, confusion, lack of coordination, memory loss, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, ringing in the ears, sleepiness and excessive fatigue, according to Mayo Clinic.

What is the prevalence of concussions?

Americans sustain about 3.8 million concussions annually, according to the CDC. In December 2018, men’s rugby accounted for most sports-related concussions, according to an international study, with 3 per every 1,000 adults, and 4.18 per every 1,000 youths reporting concussions related to rugby. Not all concussions are reported.

How about in cheerleading?

Cheerleading falls toward the bottom of the list for sports- or recreational-related concussions, at 0.7 for every 1,000 student athletes, according to the study. The only youth recreational activity that sees fewer concussions is volleyball, the study said. In a 2012 study, about 20 percent of all cheerleading injuries were concussions.

Are there any laws regarding reporting concussions?

No. But there are guidelines schools are encouraged to follow to report concussions through the Indiana High School Athletic Association. Any athlete suspected of having a concussion should be evaluated by an appropriate health care professional that day. Any athlete with a concussion should be medically cleared prior to resuming participation in any practice or competition, according to the National Federation sports rule books.

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