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Concussions and the Long, Dangerous Road to Recovery

Jackie Adams' descent into despair began in 2007 with an elbow to the head when she was an Ocean City High School sophomore during a girls soccer game.

The next day the room spun. She couldn't focus on an object without feeling sick.

The symptoms got worse over time.

Her head often pounded. She occasionally saw double.

Adams couldn't walk on the beach because the sun hurt her eyes.

She stared at questions on tests and couldn't begin to answer them, leaving entire exams blank. She read pages of books and had no idea what the story was about.

"I had no future," she told the Press of Atlantic City.

She did have post-concussion syndrome.

A 2012 study in the American Journal of Sports Medicine estimated that 300,000 sports-related concussions occur each year. The study examined 1,936 concussions from 2008-2010. Forty seven percent of those concussions happened in football, but girls soccer (8.2 percent), boys wrestling (5.8 percent) and girls basketball (5.5 percent) also topped the list.

The media is filled with stories of how multiple concussions drove former NFL stars such as Junior Seau and Dave Duerson to commit suicide.

Adams understands their anguish. On Oct. 4, 2008, Adams tried to kill herself.

"I felt like a burden," she said. "I felt like I let people down. It was a dark, dark time."

Now 23 and a self-described "super senior" at Stockton University, the Ocean City resident works with the Ospreys women's soccer team to raise concussion awareness.

"I felt no one understood me," Adams said. "I slowly began to realize I wasn't the only one with (post-concussion syndrome). I want to reassure people going through this that they are not alone."

In the past five years, the long-term impact of concussions has become the dominant sports health issue.

"I played football 20 years ago and sometimes I was in the huddle with guys who didn't know where they were," Atlantic City High School trainer John Ross said. "The awareness of concussions wasn't there. We're taking a much more proactive stance now. The kids know how dangerous concussions are now because we educate them."

All levels of sports — from youth to professional leagues — have instituted protocols to limit head injuries and make sure athletes that suffer concussions do not return to the field too quickly. The United States Soccer Federation this month banned children ages 10 and younger from heading the ball.

The New Jersey State Interscholatic Athletic Association, which governs high school sports, developed a set of guidelines in 2010 on how to deal with concussions. Before that, the NJSIAA had left it up to individual schools to deal with head injuries.

Since 2010, nearly all high school athletes undergo baseline tests before a season starts that are used to determine if they suffer a concussion.

But statistics and protocols are a clinical way of looking at the issue.

Adams' story shows what it's like to live with a scrambled brain.

The youngest of Scott and Marie Adams' four children, the 5-foot-1 Adams grew up playing all sports with little concern for her well-being. She never avoided a collision.

Adams started for the Ocean City soccer team as a sophomore in 2007. The concussion that changed her life came in a late-season game.

One of her Ocean City teammates passed the ball into the penalty box. Adams saw a chance not only to score but to make a memorable play.

"I was trying to make that awesome diving header," Adams said.

Adams and the opposing goalie went for the ball. The goalie extended her arms and her elbows crashed into Adams' head.

Adams didn't want to lose her spot on the team. After the collision, she lied and told everyone who asked she felt fine.

She played the rest of the season, but the effects of the concussion worsened that December.

Adams couldn't sleep at night.

She couldn't concentrate in school. She stayed home on Friday nights because the loud music and conversation at parties overloaded her senses.

Doctors thought she was depressed. She went from playing sports, getting good grades and socializing with friends to sleeping most of the day and being shuttled from doctor's appointment to doctor's appointment.

Finally, her father linked the changes in her personality to the collision. He did a search of her symptoms on the Internet, and the first thing that popped up was an article on the concussion effects former Flyers hockey player Keith Primeau was dealing with.

"You just want your kid better," Scott said. "I can't tell you how many ambulances she's been in."

Things got worse. Adams suffered seizures in the spring of 2008. The first happened while playing street hockey in gym class. She was running and just collapsed. More seizures followed.

She could no longer attend school. Adams finished the rest of sophomore year at home. The teachers came to her house. She sat dutifully at the kitchen table for each lesson.

"It sucked," she said. "The teachers were awesome. But I was still suffering."

Adams couldn't play soccer her junior season. She sat on the bench upset.

Things came to a head the night of Oct. 4, 2008. Adams felt even worse than usual. Ocean City had lost to Williamstown 2-0 that day.

She left her house at 9 p.m. for a run. She jogged on the shoulder of Ocean Drive toward Strathmere. One car passed her. Adams saw another set of headlights approaching.

At the last second, she impulsively jumped in front of the car.

"It's the one thing I'll never be able to forgive myself for," she said. "A day hasn't gone by that I haven't thought about that driver."

Adams didn't break any bones. But she suffered another severe head injury.

Adams recovered and tried to play soccer her senior season in 2009. But she took another elbow to the temple during a scrimmage at Eastern High School in Voorhees. Adams sat in the training room with a headache surrounded by Eastern football players.

At the same time, her cousin, 28-year-old Joey Newsome, was battling colon cancer. His struggle to survive motivated her.

"He was trying everything he could to stay alive," she said. "Here I was trying to throw everything away."

Whenever she got a headache or struggled to complete a simple task, she thought of Newsome and persevered.

After so many doctor visits that it was almost too many to count, Adams and her family finally found the Jefferson Comprehensive Concussion Center in Philadelphia in 2014.

Doctors and trainers worked with her on basic tasks such as standing with her feet together and walking a straight line. Adams eventually graduated to running on a treadmill, kicking a soccer ball and playing catch. She worked on skills to improve her reading comprehension.

Adams also found the emotional support she needed to heal through helping others. She began to volunteer at the Upper Township challenger program, which is dedicated to helping children with special needs play sports.

She coaches Team Thunder, showing the children the fundamentals of soccer, floor hockey, baseball and bowling. The children involved in the challenger program motivated her.

Adams also found a home with the Stockton women's soccer team. Since her freshman year, she's worked as a quasi-manager/assistant coach.

Adams charts the Ospreys' performance during practices and games. But more important than that is what she's done for team chemistry. The Ospreys feed off her love of soccer. Adams works hard at practice without the reward of playing in games.

Adams says she now feels better than ever. She wouldn't hesitate to let her children play sports.

"I wouldn't want to hold them back from something they love because of something I went through," she said.

She studies Spanish and education and hopes to graduate Stockton in December of 2016. She wants to teach and coach. Adams has recaptured her future.

"I feel happy," she said. "I feel like I'm here for a reason."

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Information from: The Press of Atlantic City (N.J.), http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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