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One collision turned Lisa Gfeller into a crusader.
Playing in his first varsity game at his North Carolina high school in August 2008, Matthew Gfeller was killed after a helmet-to-helmet hit. Lisa and Bob Gfeller faced the same reality that the parents of 40 other youth athletes have so far this year: the death of their child during the course of athletics.
“I was basically unaware,” said Lisa Gfeller, who teamed with the University of North Carolina to create the Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center. “I think back three years ago and I didn’t know anything about these types of hits. I knew you could get injured in football, but not like that.”
Gfeller will be one of the speakers at the 3rd Youth Sports Safety Summit in Washington on Tuesday. While brain injuries and spinal cord injuries — especially those pertaining to football — will be spoken about plenty at the symposium on Capitol Hill, the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA) also is using the event to lay out a comprehensive plan to decrease sudden deaths in organized sports.
The 23-page paper that will be in the next issue of Journal of Athletic Training also addresses asthma, overexertion for athletes with sickle cell trait, and even lightning.
“We’ve brought together experts from different areas and created this one document,” said Doug Casa, a University of Connecticut professor and co-chair of the NATA committee that came up with the list. “Everybody has done things on heat stroke before. They’ve done things on cardiac arrest. This is the first time we’re putting them all together in one document so people can understand how to protect high school and college athletes. It’s not just about one condition.”
Casa, who is also chief operating officer of the Korey Stringer Institute, is an expert on one of the most preventable on the list: heat illness, the malady that killed Stringer in a Minnesota Vikings training camp in August 2001. All it takes is identifying an athlete in trouble and putting him or her in a tub of ice water — or, better yet, coaches are urged to limit practices on excessively hot days.
Still, six young athletes — including four prep football players in the span of seven days — were killed by heat stroke last August.
“Heat stroke is always one of the top-three (killers) along with cardiac and head injuries,” Casa said.
Like with its recent response to head injuries, the NFL is attempting to lead from the front now when it comes preventing heat-related deaths. The new collective bargaining agreement eliminated two-a-day practices, something Casa said has significantly cut a player’s risk of developing heat stroke.
“Let’s focus on the positive: Roger Goodell took over as commissioner,” Casa said. “Since he’s taken over you’ve seen a lot of proactive health and safety standards come into play. A lot of credit also has to go to the NFL Players Association because they have been more proactive in their leadership as well. Goodell has been receptive to these issues a lot more than his predecessor.”
The NFL, which for years attempted to minimize the link between concussions and long-term brain ailments, has backed an effort to get concussion guidelines in all 50 states. So far, legislation that mandates that a health professional clear a middle- or high-school athlete after a concussion before he or she can resume play has been passed in 31 states and the District of Columbia.
The legislation often is named after Zackery Lystedt, who suffered concussions just minutes apart in a middle school football game that left him with a serious brain injury.
“As a result of these laws, coaches, parents and athletes better recognize the signs and symptoms of concussions and understand that they must be treated seriously and in conjunction with a trained health care provider,” said Jeff Miller, the NFL's vice president for government relations and public policy, who will again speak at the Youth Sports Safety Summit.
The penalties and fines doled out to NFL players who lead with the top of their helmet since the beginning of last season also have had a positive impact.
“Young athletes see not only how the NFL players tackle, but they also look at the athletes on how they handle concussions,” said Kevin Guskiewicz, a professor at UNC, founding director of the Matthew Gfeller Center and co-chair of the committee that came up with the guidelines. “It’s good that the NFL and other sports leagues are taking this more seriously.”
Guskiewicz said the recommendations won’t eliminate all young athlete deaths, but they could cut fatalities by as much as 90 percent if they’re adopted nationwide. That’s a significant reduction when you consider that NATA reports there have been 90 youth deaths related to athletics over the past 23 months.
Lisa Gfeller said her son may not have been saved with the legislation or the guidelines, but sports, from the equipment to the use of trained athletic trainers at more events, can get safer.
“We love sports and love our kids playing sports,” Gfeller said. “Sports are a great thing unless something horrible happens. Hopefully we can give parents and others enough information to create a safety net for young players. The kids are looking to us.”
