16-year-old Damon Janes, of Brocton, New York, passed away after he suffered a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) during a high school football game three days earlier, according to the details of an online posted on September 17th, and based on a report from Observer Today. Brocton is a small, outlying suburb situated about 35 miles southeast of Buffalo, NY.
In a regular season varsity football game between his home school, Brocton Central School and a team combined of students from Westfield Academy and Portville Central School, Janes endured a helmet-to- helmet collision during the third quarter, causing him to lose consciousness immediately. Medics rushed Janes to nearby Olean General Hospital via ambulance. The game was called off following the injury.
In a public statement, a Women & Children’s Hospital at Buffalo spokesperson talked with local media members on behalf of Damon’s parents, explaining that the Janes’ family expressed their thanks and gratitude to the people who supported and prayed for him during his short hospital stay.
In the wake of the tragic accident, all sporting events scheduled within the Brocton and Westfield school districts were suspended for one week. Based on information provided by the New York State Sportswriter Association, several athletes have died from serious injuries over the past two years during the fall sports seasons in New York State.
16-year-old Ridge Barden, of Phoenix, New York, collapsed suddenly during a 2011 football game due to a TBI and related brain bleeding after a forceful impact. Officials believed Barden’s death may have been linked to second-impact syndrome, a deadly condition resulting in widespread brain damage produced by consecutive concussions. Ronan Guyer, 14, another student, of Southold, New York, died last November in a medically induced coma triggered by cardiac arrest he suffered while preparing for a cross country meet in Elma, New York.
TBI Statistics in Youth Sports
- High-school athletes sustain between 136,000 and 300,000 concussions per year.
- US emergency rooms treat nearly 473,947 brain injuries in youth ages 0 to 14 each year, with nearly 130,000 related to sports.
- Athletes ages 16 to 18 account for 29% of all sports-related concussions.
- 15.8% of football players who sustain a concussion severe enough to cause loss of consciousness return to play the same day
- 50% of all “second impact syndrome” incidents – brain injury caused from a premature return to activity after suffering initial injury (concussion) – result in death.
TBI Awareness Continues to be an Increasing Priority
In addition to Janes’ story making national news headlines, his tragic death has also captured the attention of US government officials as well as members of the professional football community. Janes’ death comes just a few short weeks after the NFL reached a monumental settlement with former players who had filed a lawsuit in connection with severe football-related head injuries and the lasting disabilities and deaths the players and their families had endured.
The accident also contributes to already heavy national attention focused on the dangers and treatment of traumatic brain injuries, marked by the efforts of the ex-NFL players and increased funding for TBI research to treat recently injured war veterans.
Young athletes, most of whom aren’t even old enough to make the decision to serve in the military, need all of the training and protection they can get. While not all head injuries can be prevented, increasing the focus on recognizing and treating concussions, along with all forms of TBI, may help to bring the injury and death numbers down. It may be the first and most effective step to mitigating the issue of TBI in youth sports.
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