Kentucky lawmakers are considering steps to reduce concussion-related complications for student-athletes with a bill passed unanimously out of the Senate Education Committee Thursday.
Kentucky High School Athletics Association General Counsel Chad Collins said the measure would require an evaluation at the first sign of a possible concussion. He said it also specifies that returning athletes would play with permission of health care providers. Collins said no state level statistics on concussions are kept.
Leitchfield Senator Stephen Meredith voted "yes," but expressed concern about who would be allowed to evaluate student athletes before they return to play. Meredith said giving such authority to licensed health care providers along with doctors may be too broad, even if they are trained in concussion care.
“My son is a family medicine physician who has received that training in concussion protocol and he has shared with me how other health care professionals have said ‘yeah, that child is ok to play’ and they obviously were not. And that just enhances the risk to the child,” Meredith said.
