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The Voice of North Grenville
Vol. 6 No 34
August 22, 2018
It’s not just a concussion Instant rebate
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by Hilary Thomson Eighteen-year-old Connor O’Callaghan lay unconscious on the side of Rideau River Road. He had overdosed on cocaine. His body was almost lifeless, except for the thud of his heart that was still beating inside his chest. His friends had dumped him at the side of the road, foaming at the mouth, thinking that he was going to die. Just a few years earlier, Connor was MVP of his hockey team. He was a model student at Saint Michael Catholic High School and wouldn’t touch alcohol, or even try a cigarette. He was on his way to becoming a decorated athlete. So, what happened? What changed in Connor’s life that lead him to that day, just a few weeks ago, when he was found on the side of a country road, left for dead? It happened in a split second, with a simple blow to the head. Connor suffered his first concussion in January of 2015, playing basketball for the Saint Michael Catholic High School team. He was a fifteen-year old sports fanatic, often juggling multiple sports at once. After an assessment by a doctor, he was cleared to go back to playing sports, and, while he didn’t return to basketball, he continued to play hockey. Just one-month later, Connor had his second concussion while on the ice. “I wanted him to stop for
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a year, to heal after his second concussion,” says his mother, Lyn O’Callaghan. “But everyone was telling me I was just being a paranoid mom.” Two weeks after the doctors cleared him to go back to hockey, he was hit in the head once again, causing another
concussion. “He had three concussions in six weeks,” Lyn says. “Every time you have a concussion, if they are close together, the effects multiply.” A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to
the head. According to Dr. Kristian Goulet, the medical director at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario’s (CHEO) concussion clinic, there are between 1.6 to 3.8 million sports related conContinued on page 14
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