HALIFAX – A teenage boy from Bedford who has already sustained three concussions is hoping a bracelet campaign spreads greater awareness about the symptoms and dangers of injuries like his.
Will Bartlett, 13, started playing hockey when he was four years old, but by the time he was 12, he had already been concussed three times.
Bartlett got his first concussion when he was trying out for a peewee hockey team at age 11.
“I was going up the ice with the puck and I was hit at centre ice,” he said.
“I didn’t fall down. My head was just whipped back and we think that gave me my first concussion.”
Bartlett left the ice after the incident. He said he had trouble concentrating, but after a few weeks he was back to normal.
Not long afterward, Bartlett was again playing hockey when he sustained his second concussion.
“I was playing defence and I had the puck. I just had my head up to look for somebody to pass it to and one of the other players on the other team charged at me, elbowed me in the side of the head then I hit my head on the side of the boards and on the ice,” he said.
He said his second concussion left him feeling sick to his stomach, dizzy, tired and suffering from “really bad headaches.”
Bartlett abstained from using electronic devices, including his computer, phone and iPod, to avoid over-stimulating his brain. He also took seven weeks off school.
“I would just lie there sometimes and feel how bad it was,” he said.
Last year, Bartlett was playing with friends when someone kicked a soccer ball that hit him in the back of the head.
“After a little while, we went inside and I just went home and laid down on the couch,” he said.
Bartlett, who is a Scout, decided to do a project on concussions to get his Chief Scout Award. He ordered 350 grey bracelets with the slogan “Grey Matter Matters” as a way to increase awareness about concussions and get the conversation going.
“Grey matter is your brain. A concussion is a serious injury even though they call it a mild injury,” Bartlett said.
“I thought it was great,” said his mother Allana. “He came up with the idea of doing something around concussions and it just rolled from there.”
“I think the biggest thing the bracelet is for is just to remind people about concussions, to help people understand what the symptoms are and to know if they’re feeling any symptoms, to limit their activity and seek medical help,” she said.
Bartlett’s father, Don, said what his son has used his experience with concussions to accomplish is impressive.
“It gave me a whole different way of thinking about sports in general and the risk, especially for young players, that need to be brought more to the forefront,” he said. “It’s just a game,”
He said the players’ health is the most important thing.
“I do miss the fact Will is not playing hockey, but I much prefer to have him fully functional and happy than pushing him in a game that could cause him more trauma later in life.”
Bartlett said the trio of concussions has changed his life dramatically.
The teen is taking the situation in stride and said he now dabbles in other sports such as tennis, badminton and fencing.
“I never thought I would actually have to quit my favourite sport because of something like this.”
People who want to contribute to Grey Matter Matters can email yourgreymattermatters@gmail.com or visit its Facebook page. All donations will go toward Concussion Nova Scotia.
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