According to a new study in the journal, Pediatrics, if a person is able to tense up their neck muscles, they may be able to minimize the whipsaw effect on the head and thereby reduce the incidence of concussion. Although the study was conducted on hockey player impacts, it has obvious implications for people involved in car accidents.
The study conducted by Jason Mihalik with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill involved attaching accelerometers to ice hockey players’ heads. The device would measure the degree of acceleration experienced by the player on impact. They then compared the video of the hit to the recorded data to determine whether the player was prepared for ht hit or not. The conclusion was that if the player is prepared and can brace their neck for impact, they lessen the acceleration of the head and the resulting movement of the brain.
This study has long reaching implications for people diagnosed with concussions in car accidents in Georgia. General practitioners are getting better at spotting concussions from car accidents, but they need to add this valuable question on intake. “Were you braced for the impact, did you see it coming.” Being struck by surprise should now be one of the danger signs they look for.
Atlanta car accident lawyers work with car accident victims suffering from post concussive syndrome frequently and from an anecdotal sampling of primary care doctors, it is clear that the medical response is far from uniform.