Enabling Athletes to Return to Play

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.