Coaches and school officials in Upstate New York last week continued to try to figure out why a 16-year-old high school football player died of brain injury during a routine game.
The New York Times did a Page One story Thursday, “Seemingly Ordinary Game, Then a Player Dies,” on the much-publicized case of Ridge Barden of Phoenix, N.Y., who died a week ago Friday.
Coaches at John C. Birdlebough High School watched and rewatched video of the game where Barden collapsed, dying several hours later of a subdural hemotoma, or bleeding of the brain. According to the Times, the group believe that Barden suffered what would turn out to be a fatal blow after having “a routine collision with an opposing lineman at the line of scrimmage.”
Barden looked OK has he got ready for the next play, but wound up collapsing. He was conscious, saying that he had a suffered a helmet-to-helmet hit. Barden said his head hurt. He could not stand up.
One doctor quoted by The Times said that Barden would have had to had undergone surgery immediately to survive. Another physician blamed swelling of the brain from the hit, not the bleeding, for killing Barden.
The bottom line of the story seemed to be that no matter what precautions are taken, young athletes are still very vulverable.
“Teenagers are especially susceptible to having multiple hits to the head result in brain bleeds and massive swelling, largely because the brain tissue has not yet fully developed,” The Times wrote. “According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research, Barden was the 13th high school player to die from a brain injury sustained on a football field since 2005 and the third this year. Including college and youth football players, there have been 18 fatalities since 2005.”
