A fellow triathlon swimmer’s accidental kick to Jarrod
Shoemaker’s face started a downward spiral for the
former
Olympian, who was soon injured again in a bike crash.
Fortunately, Shoemaker located John Leddy, MD, associate
director of the UB Sports Medicine Institute, who ran tests showing
the professional triathlete had suffered a concussion. After a
prescribed course of recovery, Shoemaker went on to win the USA
Triathlon Elite Race Series.
UB research has helped change how team physicians manage concussed
athletes, who are at risk of permanent brain damage, even premature
death. “There is no such thing as a minor concussion,”
according to Leddy.
UB’s Concussion Management Clinic serves 150 patients a year:
professional and amateur athletes, and people injured at work, home
or in car accidents. The Ralph C. Wilson Foundation’s recent
gift to UB honored Buffalo Bills team physicians in the
institute.