KNOCKED AROUND BY HEAD INJURIES
LAST summer Trent Keep was awarded the CTPL’s best player, now he can’t even get through an entire movie.
The Kingborough captain has been forced to sit out the CTPL season this summer and give up football forever as he battles ongoing concussion symptoms that have also caused heart issues.
He is unable to work or study at present, his vision has been impaired, he lives in a near constant state of grogginess and lethargy, and he can’t concentrate for more than an hour without the need of a substantial sleep. “It has been a draining period of my life, probably the most difficult period I’ve had,” Keep, 26, said.
“I’ve had a fairly blessed life in terms of everything else, I’ve never really been injured.
“It is like if you had a broken leg it would be quite obvious what was wrong with you.
“But concussion is something I find really difficult to articulate to people who fortunately haven’t experienced it and I hope they never do.
“It is a really difficult thing to understand what it is like to be constantly drained or wake up with a pounding headache.”
Keep suffered a slight lesion on the brain when hit while batting in the Blundstone Arena nets two years ago. He had fully recovered when he was knocked out in a marking contest playing for the Tigers in the TSL Development League on August 8 and taken by ambulance to hospital.
His situation worsened when he fainted at his brother’s house a week ago and was again knocked unconscious as his head hit a wall as he fell, resulting in his second hospital visit in six weeks.
“The concussion symptoms are quite severe and I’ve had quite a few complications with my heart with some electrical connections between my head and heart,” he said.
“It is almost like feeling foggy and groggy 24/7.
“There’s a constant pressure in your head which is a major symptom of concussion, and a sensitivity to light and a constant fatigue, which is also quite common with brain injuries, particularly around concussion.
“I’m struggling to sit through a movie at the moment. I’ll get halfway and feel like I’ve had 100 beers the night before and you fade away into a pretty deep sleep.”
The recent deaths of football legends Danny Frawley and Graham “Polly” Farmer, who were both diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy post mortem, has been scary for Keep, but he said his diagnosis was with rest he should suffer no longterm ill effects.
He said the support of family, medical staff and both his football and cricket club has been outstanding.
“It has been a very scary time but I’m still on my feet,” Keep said.
“It is important to raise awareness around the issues of concussion particularly around sporting clubs.
“If I’ve got to go through a bit of shit to create a bit more awareness around what I think is a very serious issue in sport in itself and then so be it.
“I don’t have a choice, I have to take this on and hopefully something positive can come from it.”