Teen’s legacy aids study of concussions
Rugby player Rowan Stringer died of second impact syndrome, tests find
As Kathleen and Gordon Stringer were organizing the funeral and coming to grips with their 17-yearold daughter Rowan’s death last year, they received an unusual phone call from a stranger.
Chris Nowinski, executive director of the Sports Legacy Institute in Boston, had read about the Barrhaven teenager’s death after a high school rugby game, and he wanted her brain for research.
The request might have surprised her parents, but they didn’t balk. Anything, they felt, that could expand the understanding of what caused Rowan’s death and help to prevent similar deaths or serious injuries in the future “we fully support.”
Today, because of that phone call, Rowan Stringer’s brain tissue is part of a bank at Boston University’s Centre for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy. The centre has gained international attention for studying the brains of professional athletes, such as hockey enforcer Bob Probert, who, researchers found, suffered from degenerative brain disease as a result of multiple hits to the head. Researchers at the centre affiliated with the Sports Legacy Institute have also detected chronic traumatic encephalopathy in the brain tissue of football players and numerous other athletes.
When they studied Rowan’s brain tissue, they confirmed that she had suffered from a rare, but often deadly, condition called second impact syndrome, which can strike teenagers or young adults who experience more than one concussion in rapid succession, as Rowan did. Not only will researchers around the world use the brain tissue to learn more about identifying and preventing the syndrome, but the Sports Legacy Institute will help students at Rowan’s school — John McCrae secondary school in Barrhaven — better understand concussions and second impact syndrome, with a view to helping to prevent future tragedies.
With help from the institute, the high school has developed a teaching component on concussions and second impact syndrome as part of its Grade 10 biology course, said Gorden Stringer. He said he hopes it can be expanded across the Ottawa Carleton District School Board.
“We believe that these cases are preventable,” said Nowinski. “Almost everybody who suffers second impact syndrome returned to play while still suffering symptoms, which they often hadn’t told a coach or parent about.”
By educating students, such as those at John McCrae, to understand the symptoms of concussion and how serious something like a headache can be, the chances are greater that they will tell their parents or coaches.
Rowan Stringer’s case, said Nowinski, was a classic scenario in a world in which “athletes have never been told that a headache is not something you play through.”
Her mother Kathleen said they now know that Rowan likely received at least one mild concussions in the days leading up to her death last year. She had complained of a headache after a game on the Friday before her death, her mother said, but since they had been in the sun all day, she didn’t think too much about it.
During a second rugby game on Monday, Rowan, who was captain and one of the experienced players on the team, “really hurt her knee” and talked to her parents about it. What she didn’t mention was that she had also hit her head. She told friends, they later learned, that she felt dizzy and spaced out.
She failed a driving test the next day, her father said, which could point to how she was feeling, but although she talked to friends about it, she didn’t mention it to her parents.
Rowan was tough, her mother said. And, as team captain, she might have felt a responsibility to keep playing. But she was safe and careful with her head. Had she understood the risk, her mother believes, she wouldn’t have gone on the field on May 8, 2013.
On that day, Rowan took a major hit to the head after a tackle during a game and never regained consciousness. It was only at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario that Kathleen Stringer — a nurse — first heard the term “second impact syndrome,” when Rowan’s doctor mentioned it after her family began hearing from friends that she might have suffered an earlier concussion.
On Wednesday, which would have been Rowan’s 19th birthday, Kathleen and Gordon Stringer said helping to promote education about concussions is part of their daughter’s legacy, as was her decision to donate her organs.
Gordon Stringer called the release this week from CHEO researchers of comprehensive guidelines on youth concussions a positive step.
But both Gordon and Kathleen Stringer said they believe it is crucial that the message get out to teenagers to take headaches and hits to the head — their own and their friends’ — seriously. Kathleen Stringer suggests that, after high school rugby games, the team discuss the game as a way to encourage players to report any hits to the head that might have gone unno-
We would never want any sport to be taken away. There are so many more positives than negatives.
ticed by the coaching staff.
The Stringers would also like to see schools do baseline neurological testing on rugby players, as a measuring stick in case they receive a concussion.
Last fall, school board spokeswoman Sharlene Hunter said the board has offered head injury prevention and concussion management courses to principals, viceprincipals, athletic directors and rugby coaches this year.
The board is also developing new concussion-management procedures.
Rowan’s parents, meanwhile, say their daughter loved rugby and other sports, and they would never suggest it not be played at high school.
“We would never want any sport to be taken away. There are so many more positives than negatives,” said Kathleen.
“Rowan lived her life to the fullest. She had a wonderful life. I would still recommend parents put their kids in sports.”