Ever had a concussion?

I have shockingly good "you are about to run your head into something" reflexes, and have had a bunch of near misses, but nothing worse than a small bump, while working.

Now, backstairs at Annie Pfeiffer Chapel while on a visit/tour, yeah. But they knew better, and had permanent foam rubber padding gaffed up there. :)
 
I actually had a concussion recently and was off from work for almost 3 months, receiving workers comp pay checks in lieu of my regular paycheck.

I threw a box of unused programs in a dumpster and when I turned around to pick up another box, apparently it had landed on a 2x4 just right to catapult it out of the dumpster and hit me in the back of the head, BELOW my hard hat. Right behind my ear. Mind you, I've walked into I-beams, stood up into lighting fixtures, had a multi cable dropped on my head, etc and never suffered any dizziness/nauseousness, but this light tap (really didn't hit me very hard) made me feel ill for months. I plan on buying a petzl hard hat to wear everywhere on load in sites, as I never want to put myself at risk again.The dumpster was a recycling dumpster and there shouldn't have been wood in there, but some carpenter threw some stick lumber in and we didn't realize it.

The time off work was nice, for the first few weeks, but I got bored really fast. Fortunately didn't have any brain damage or internal bleeding. I'm glad my company insisted I take the time off to recover though.
 
I actually had a concussion recently and was off from work for almost 3 months, receiving workers comp pay checks in lieu of my regular paycheck.

I threw a box of unused programs in a dumpster and when I turned around to pick up another box, apparently it had landed on a 2x4 just right to catapult it out of the dumpster and hit me in the back of the head, BELOW my hard hat. Right behind my ear. Mind you, I've walked into I-beams, stood up into lighting fixtures, had a multi cable dropped on my head, etc and never suffered any dizziness/nauseousness, but this light tap (really didn't hit me very hard) made me feel ill for months. I plan on buying a petzl hard hat to wear everywhere on load in sites, as I never want to put myself at risk again.The dumpster was a recycling dumpster and there shouldn't have been wood in there, but some carpenter threw some stick lumber in and we didn't realize it.

The time off work was nice, for the first few weeks, but I got bored really fast. Fortunately didn't have any brain damage or internal bleeding. I'm glad my company insisted I take the time off to recover though.
Tough lesson to learn. Be glad you've learned it, remember it, pass it on to others and BE THANKFUL you've escaped seemingly unscathed. THANK YOU for spreading your wisdom here.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
I'm super late to this one, but...I've had two work concussions - first one was during a load out, I crawled out from under the false floor just as someone booted a piece of set to detach it, and it fell onto the back of my head. I don't remember much more about that load out except that the chief LX wouldn't let me climb ladders. Second was was also during a load out; we were bumping from an outdoor stage to a truck and as I was wheeling a roadcase of Source 4s down the ramp, the ramp slid off the stage edge, dumping me and the roadcase on the paving stones below. I landed on my hip, elbow and head.

Worst one I've ever seen was up in the roof of an arena - the catwalks are fine for a shorty like me, but taller people have to be careful. A young, tall and enthusiastic tech got a bit too enthusiastic when asked to go and get something from the other end of the catwalk, turned and ran full tilt into an I-beam. I don't recall how we got him down, but I took him off for medical attention and he was off work for about three months.
 
Oddly enough. I had a mild one just a week or so ago. Carrying 2 fixtures on a load out in the catwalk of a convention center exhibition hall. Ducked the first pipe, didn't duck the second one, knocked me flat onto my back. next thing I knew the girl I was working with was right next to me.... but she had been 75 feet away on the other end of the catwalk so I can only think I must have been out for a second or so.
Decided it was finally time to get one of those petzl helmets to serve as a bump cap.
 
"A stagehand walks into a bar...he got a concussion"
 
I've been researching concussions a lot lately because mine flared back up shortly after going back to work earlier this year. I was out for another 4 months this time. I found most doctors would just tell me to go home and rest, but that wasn't cutting it for me. A lot of people suffer head injuries and the advice of "go home and rest" doesn't work for them, and they suffer for YEARS, or for the rest of their lives.

New research shows that you can identify which part of the brain is injured by how your eyes/vestibular system behaves. You can then treat a brain injury by stimulating the part of the vestibular system that isn't working properly. I have been seeing a chiropractic neurologist for the last 3 months that have really helped me recover. Since being back at work the last 4 weeks, I've hit my head on things several more times and have not had a re-flare up, and I largely attribute that to the work I've done with him.

Here's a youtube playlist of videos about recent brain injury research. I highly recommend watching them if you are suffering PCS or know someone who is. If nothing else, watch the first video (it's 7 minutes long).

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYl5XSL2lzNhcAlvRWbQOYz4En8H7MFx1
 
..... Since being back at work the last 4 weeks, I've hit my head on things several more times and have not had a re-flare up, and I largely attribute that to the work I've done with him.....
Perhaps you should invest in a Hard hat.
 
Had two major ones, but not in staging.

One was when I was working for an electrician, I had forgotten that I left a hammer on top of an A-frame ladder when my boss wanted to talk to me and frazzled me so much, I went to fold up the ladder to move it, and the hammer got me in the head.

The other was when I worked for a store off-loading a truck, I went to jump off the back into the doorway and didn't take into consideration the height difference...my head hit the top of the brick doorway, and my feet kept going until I was lying horizontal in mid-air, and then fell flat (just like a cartoon).

I should have gone to the hospital for both of them, but instead just rubbed my head until it stopped hurting.
 
When the architects hire (pay) the consultants, the consultants work to please the architects.

I'm up front and am clear I will take issues to the Owner if it's in their best interest. The architects I regularly work with and call me back are fine with the Owner making decisions. I do what I believe is in the Owners best interest, as I belive do a lot of my colleagues. Worse than and architect is the Owner's own designated representative, who will bypass and over rule the users on such issues.
 
OK, dusting off an old topic....
There is a discussion going on in a parents group of my daughter's college about (at another school) an incident where a student got wacked on the head before a show by a falling pipe....ran the show, then went to the ER on their own to get checked out - concussion, no brain bleeding.
The discussion is about who should have been responsible in this situation - why did the student have to bring themselves to the ER? Why was there not a formal injury report made? What should the school's roll been in this situation.

I believe this does fall in that in between place of OSHA doesn't have jurisdiction because they are not employees. The students are of age, so they are not children. Past discussions seem to indicate that, at least in a high school (under 18 years old) that this often falls under what the insurance underwriter will allow....assuming there are no district/school policies in place.

My feeling in this particular situation is that the college theatre should have a written policy about injury reporting and actions. The college's staff should be the responsible party for the policy/action and for educating the students about injury reporting and actions.

I believe this involves a student run organization on campus - There may not be actual collage staff is directly involved.

My gut feeling is that the facility owner (the college) is the responsible party and should have published policies and procedures that the students must follow in the case of injuries. The lack of a school employee on site at the time should NOT remove the responsibility of the school having set policies. But, because the injured student is an adult, they are responsible for activating the policy/action plan when an injury happens. There NEEDS to be a designated safety person (stage manager? TD?), especially when there is no staff available, who is responsible for activating action when an injury happens.

Thoughts?
 
As part of an all student theater group when I was on campus, I some similar experience.

We spent some time talking about safety, and taking care of each other. We definitely had no formal written policy, regardless of what campus rules were. On my campus (and I assume on most/all other campuses) every student group had to have an on staff adult representative. In our case, I don't think I even knew who that person is, which tells you about their involvement level.

That seems to me to be the best path towards keeping a rotating student group on task for priority things like this. That faculty advisor may not do ANYTHING else, but if they can keep the safety responsibility on track, I think it is well worth it.
 
OK, dusting off an old topic....
There is a discussion going on in a parents group of my daughter's college about (at another school) an incident where a student got wacked on the head before a show by a falling pipe....ran the show, then went to the ER on their own to get checked out - concussion, no brain bleeding.
The discussion is about who should have been responsible in this situation - why did the student have to bring themselves to the ER? Why was there not a formal injury report made? What should the school's roll been in this situation.

I believe this does fall in that in between place of OSHA doesn't have jurisdiction because they are not employees. The students are of age, so they are not children. Past discussions seem to indicate that, at least in a high school (under 18 years old) that this often falls under what the insurance underwriter will allow....assuming there are no district/school policies in place.

My feeling in this particular situation is that the college theatre should have a written policy about injury reporting and actions. The college's staff should be the responsible party for the policy/action and for educating the students about injury reporting and actions.

I believe this involves a student run organization on campus - There may not be actual collage staff is directly involved.

My gut feeling is that the facility owner (the college) is the responsible party and should have published policies and procedures that the students must follow in the case of injuries. The lack of a school employee on site at the time should NOT remove the responsibility of the school having set policies. But, because the injured student is an adult, they are responsible for activating the policy/action plan when an injury happens. There NEEDS to be a designated safety person (stage manager? TD?), especially when there is no staff available, who is responsible for activating action when an injury happens.

Thoughts?
As far back as 1984 and further, my schools all required all extracurricular activities to be staffed with a particular student/teacher ratio and enforced injury reporting, and all were covered by the district's liability policy, some of it is self-insured. Outside groups utilizing school district facilities had to provide proof of liability and it was verified by the district. I'll bet somewhere the college has a student's "bill of rights" and also a college-wide requirement that the student or representative of the student report the injury. IOW there's no need to grasp your pearls here, if someone is injured by a fallen pipe and says "I'm alright" and proceeds to go about life as usual but later decides to go get checked out... that's called advocating for yourself, and it probably happens more often for more injuries than an ambulance ride called by others, racing for miles with lights and sirens for a stubbed toe.
 
A college should have an environmental, health, and safety officer (aka risk manager). My former employer had someone in that position, along with a volunteer safety committee made up of employees from various departments. The discussion should start with that person. The safety officer might not be very aware of the sorts of hazards present on a stage.

I'm just thinking out loud: If there are policies regarding injuries for the athletic department, why wouldn't they apply to the theater department?
 
Nit picking here, but please don't call them climbing helmets. They're not. They are ANSI Z89.1 and CE approved hard hats (unless of course it really is just a climbing helmet). They just happen to have chin straps and look like climbing helmets. The reason I bring this up is it's a constant battle to convince general contractor safety officers that my hard hat is in fact approved for use on the job site. You only need to drop your hard hat on a job site forman once while terminating DMX ports on a box boom before people start liking the idea of strapping them on!

Ethan
Lots going on in this whole thread, but +1 to what Ethan said. I hate wearing a lid without a chin strap nowadays, even on the ground (thank you, Rope Access).
Head injuries get walked off too much. If you hit your head, especially on a job site, please do get checked out. Long term, the damage is real, there's no actual recovery from it and CTE is no way to go out.
I know Rolling Stone isn't the most heralded medical journal, but have a read. Brain injuries and a culture of waving it off doesn't just happen in BMX. Brain injuries in action sports

And yes, regardless of the law, schools have to operate in terms of the well being of their students. It is the ethical thing to do.
 
I was looking out the window at a big construction site in Seattle the other day. I did a double take because all I saw were people wearing "helmets" with chin straps. There was not one, conventional hard hat to be seen. The newer style must be catching on in the construction trades, or at least with that general contractor. It makes sense because when you need the protection the most is when hat gravity is taking place.
 

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