MomsTeam.com is the pioneer in Youth
Sports concussion education & information

On September 28, 2001, seventeen-year-old Matthew Colby died after sustaining multiple concussions in a high school football game in California. In the wake of his tragic death, his uncle, Deron Colby, started a non-profit foundation in his name. Its mission: to educate the youth sport community on the dangers of football concussions especially when an athlete is allowed to return to play before the athlete is asymptomatic at rest and with exertion.

The name given to the head trauma that most likely killed Matthew is "Second Impact Syndrome" a somewhat rare but potentially fatal condition in which a person, often a young athlete, suffers a mild head injury and then suffers a second concussion before the brain has fully recovered from the first injury. The result can be a coma, brain swelling and a rapid, massive increase in pressure inside the skull that can be catastrophic or fatal.

Deron spent countless hours during the three months after Matthew's death searching for answers to three basic questions.

1. What are the standards high schools should follow in determining the severity of head injuries in athletes and the guidelines they should use in determining when an athlete can safely be allowed to return to play?

2. Where can a parent, coach, or trainer find the most comprehensive information on SIS

3. Where can a parent learn about the training that should be required of high school trainers/coaches/other support personnel in classifying the severity of concussions and making return-to-play decisions?

When Deron e-mailed MomsTeam lamenting the fact that he couldn't find answers to his questions, even on our site which I told us "the most extensive head injury information on the internet", and asked us for our help, we rolled up our sleeves and started looking for answers. We knew that, working less than two miles away (from our first office) at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Massachusetts was Robert Cantu, MD, one of the world's foremost expert on concussions in sports, and the author of one of the most widely followed concussion grading and return-to-play guidelines then in use.

Dr. Cantu was concerned that many athletes and their parents did not understand the risk of playing "while still symptomatic from an initial head injury." Coaches, especially in sports with the highest-risk of head and neck injury, may not "fully understand the risk," said Dr. Cantu, because most of them have not received training in managing sport concussions.

While Dr. Cantu was traveling the world speaking to his peers in the sports medicine community about concussion management, he felt that those presentations were simply "preaching to the choir." In his view, the most effective way to reduce the number of cases of SIS and protect athletes from suffering long-term effects from concussions was "for MomsTeam.com to reach all of the parents, aunts and uncles of youth sports athletes to educate and inform them on the deadly outcome of Second Impact Syndrome" and concussion management.

Working closely with Dr. Cantu, who joined MomsTeam as an expert, we spent two months researching and writing articles for a new area of the site to provide comprehensive information on concussions to coaches, parents, players and trainers.

Thus was born the MomsTeam Head Injury Channel.

Now, six years since its launch, the Head Injury Channel is about to undergo a comprehensive updating to reflect the enormous advances that have occurred in the 2000's in concussion management. New articles will be added, and every existing article will be revised and reviewed by Dr. Cantu to ensure that the information we provide reflects the latest consensus of medical experts around the world on the subject of concussions, all in the direct, concise, easy-to-read format that has always been MomsTeam's hallmark.

For six years, MomsTeam has been the leading source of concussion information for parents on the Internet. Parents know it and so does the media. We are proud of what we have accomplished.

In the months and years ahead, MomsTeam Health and Safety editors and writers, along with Dr. Cantu, will continue to provide advice, support, and articles on concussion management and the dangers of concussions. Our goal now, as it was in 2001, is to do everything we can to minimize the long-term risks that concussions, if not properly managed, pose to athletes and, above all, to make sure that no parent, uncle, or community will again have to mourn the death of an athlete dying young.

The Matthew Colby Foundation, Inc.
4100 Newport Place, Suite 660
Newport Beach, California 92660

Checks should be made out to: "The Matthew Colby Foundation, Inc."

Please share your questions, comments and stories with us. All information is kept confidential. Please send an email to editors@momsteam.com

Date created: December 26, 2007
© MomsTeam.com, Inc.

For Additional Information on Preventing
Second Impact Syndrome
Read this book:

	Reprint Policy Return to Head Injury Home Page

 The Balance Error Scoring System
 Concussions: By The Numbers
 Concussion Grading Systems And Return-To-Play Guidelines: A Comparison
 Concussions: Myths And Misconceptions
 Managing Concussions In High School Sports: A Proposed Model
 Effects Of Concussions On Children
 Post Concussion Signs And Symptoms: A Checklist
 Post Traumatic Amnesia
 Preventing Further Concussions
 Second Impact Syndrome: What Is It?
 Second Impact Syndrome: Reasons To Be Cautious With Even Mild Concussions
 Standard Assessment Of Concussions
 Treating Athletes With Concussions: No Clear Consensus
 Concussions: Advice For Parents Of Youth Athletes

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