WHAT HAPPENED TO ME

It was 31st August 1997, the same day as Lady Diana was killed in Paris, and I was playing rugby union football in a Golden Oldies competition in the northern suburbs of Sydney. I was then 43 years of age. I have played rugby since I was 5 years old and never really been hurt. This day it was going to be different. I was tackled heavily, my head hit the ground and I was knocked out for between 3 and 5 minutes. After regaining consciousness and having been walked to the sideline, I was taken to hospital for a check-up. The conclusion, by the young intern, was that everything was OK. No X-rays, CT scans or MRI's were taken, no nothing! I was asked some general questions like: who is the leader of our country, what is the date today etc, followed by some very basic reflex checking. These tests are of course inadequate and totally primitive for the human body. The head injury procedure carried out by some hospitals is in my opinion seriously lacking. Nothing I have discovered since my incident has changed my opinion on this subject whatsoever.

The next few days I recovered at home, with only a blackened right cheekbone and bloodshot right eye to show for my troubles, or so I thought. The problems that I was to experience were not apparent immediately after the accident. It wasn't until a few months post the injury, which is frequently the case with this type of incident that my life started to change. Imagine the problem some people have trying to connect a head injury 5 or 10 years earlier to an illness they have now. This is an all too common occurrence.