Safety for the future

Cognitive issues, short term memory loss, depression, headaches and more are just some of the issues Kevin Drake deals with on a daily basis, even though he doesn’t like admitting it. A former NFL player, Drake now owns Drake Fitness on Cahaba River Road and also serves as the program director of the Wise Up Initiative, a program dedicated to spreading awareness of concussions and head injuries. 

His own experiences with concussions are what Drake believes led him to the issues he has today.

“A lot of guys, especially football players and former football players, you still want to be tough. You still want to say, ‘I can make it through this. I’m fine. I can manage it,’ when really you need to go get help,” Drake said.

Drake and his wife, Kimberly, started the initiative in 2013 after his health began affecting him. His doctors linked the problems to the 10 or more concussions he sustained through his years in athletics.

“Because of Kevin’s experience, we obviously felt a need, here in our area especially, to do more about education and research in this particular field,” Kimberly said. “The more we learned about it, the more our eyes were opened to how serious of an issue it really is.”

Drake’s organization recently teamed up with the Kevin Turner Foundation, which also raises funds and awareness for athletic head injuries, for a fundraising event at Good People Brewing Company. The foundation’s namesake, Kevin Turner, is a Vestavia Hills resident and was diagnosed with ALS in 2010. Turner played for the University of Alabama before playing in the NFL. He suffered several brain injuries. 

“From 2009 to 2010, I watched Kevin, short of dying, go through so much at one time,” Turner’s former roommate and long-time friend Craig Sanderson said. “[Keeping] his sense of humor and desire to make people laugh through that time is a real testament to his spirit.”

Brain injuries have not been proven to cause diseases like ALS, but studies have shown a higher percentage of former athletes diagnosed with the disease, said Tamara Alan of the Kevin Turner Foundation.

“It’s our duty to warn people about the dangers of concussions [and that they] can lead to something as horrible as ALS,” Tamara said. 

Though both organizations understand concussions are not preventable, their goal is to spread awareness of what should be done when concussions inevitably happen, especially to children. 

“Concussions happen every day at home, playing on the playground, rough housing with each other,” Drake said. 

Both organizations believe one of the main reasons many concussions have long-term affects is because they go unidentified and are not given the proper treatment to heal. Many athletes and coaches, Tamara said, still believe that one has to be knocked unconscious to suffer a concussion. In reality, any head injury could result in a concussion. 

“I got smelling salts and walked off to the sidelines until I came to a little bit. I’d stay away from the trainers as much as I could and then go right back in the game. It’s probably the dumbest thing I ever did, but you didn’t know at the time. There was no research on long-term effects,” Drake said.

Through working with experts from UAB, Children’s Hospital and leading concussion researchers out of Boston, Drake and his wife have stayed up to date on the latest concussion research. Though concussions are usually easy to heal from, proper treatment is necessary to prevent long-term effects. 

Parents who suspect their children might have a concussion should seek a doctor trained in recognizing concussions, Drake said. Symptoms can range from an inability to think clearly to physical problems such as headaches, nausea or dizziness. Concussion diagnosis, Drake said, is more complicated than it may seem. The injury does not show up on brain scans and it can go unrecognized by some doctors. Drake said it is important to parents to pay attention to their gut feeling when dealing with concussions.

“Parents are the ones that take their kids home. They’re their first line of defense or their last line of defense. They really need to be educated on what their son or daughter might be going through if they do get a concussion,” Drake said. 

During recovery, rest and the least amount of brain stimulation possible is essential for healing. Though it is often thought that sleeping during a concussion is dangerous, it is actually an important step in the healing process, Drake said. Parents should also take away cell phones, television, computers, books and any other device that causes a child’s brain to be stimulated. 

“If you have a broken arm or broken leg, you don’t walk, you don’t use it, you allow time to heal,” Drake said. “It’s the same thing with the brain. You have to allow time to heal.”