TULSA, Okla. — March is Traumatic Brain Injury Awareness Month, and local schools and medical professionals are working to protect student athletes from one of the nation's most common — and often invisible — health crises.
Traumatic brain injuries affect nearly 2.8 million Americans every year, resulting in more than 56,000 deaths and nearly 300,000 hospitalizations.
A fall, a car crash, a blow to the head during a game — TBIs can happen to anyone, anywhere, in a split second. Yet many people don't even know they've had one.
Christopher Glisson, the neuroscience medical director at St. Francis, said youth sports are a particular area of concern.
"Yeah, absolutely. So contact sports particularly in youth, is a huge concern in the neurologic community. There are over 3.5 million sports-related traumatic brain injuries every year in the United States, and somewhere between 15 to 20% of all sports-related injuries relate to injuries to the head. You know, it's interesting that the greatest risk for sports-related traumatic brain injury is between the ages of 9 and 20."
Green Country high schools, including Union High School, have added Guardian Caps to their students' football helmets. The caps are soft shells designed to help prevent concussions and other head injuries.
Dan Newman, Union High School's associate athletic director, said the caps are intended to reduce the impact of head-to-head contact.
"I have a guardian cap and you've probably seen them at the high school ranks, the college ranks, and even the professional ranks with players wearing them in-game and in practice. The idea behind the guardian cap is to reduce head impact to reduce some of those forces onto the head. Is it 100% proof, you know, concussion proof? Absolutely not."
Jenks High School also weighed in on the use of the caps, saying: "Although the Guardian Caps provide additional protection, there hasn't been a significant reduction in concussion numbers or data to conclusively show a difference."
Glisson and Newman both said girls actually have a higher chance of receiving a concussion than boys.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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