Safety

Although her daughter Heidi had suffered multiple concussions in the past (one in second grade during recreational skating, the second more serious concussion in a collision with a softball teammate in ninth grade), and despite thinking she was "concussion savvy," Dorothy Bedford says that, three to four weeks afer Heidi suffered a third concussion warming up for an ice hockey game during her sophomore year in high school, she was unprepared for the "mysterious journey" that lay ahead for both of them.

For Dorothy Bedford's series, "The Unmarked Detour: A Family's Journey Through Post-Concussion Syndrome", click here.

After sustaining a series of subconcussive blows to her head during the previous week's training, Heidi Taggart asked her ice hockey coach to be excused from goaltending during a game in February 2010 when she began experiencing "flu-like" symptoms.  He told her to "suck it up" and take the ice. During pre-game warm-ups, a teammate's stick hit Heidi in the head during the follow-through from a wrist shot.  She immediately began experiencing concussion symptoms (headache, disorientation, drowsiness), but the injury was not initially thought to be too serious.   It was anything but.