S Christian player suffers brain injury

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - A South Christian High School football player underwent emergency surgery after suffering a brain injury during a tackling exercise.

Chris Jansen, a senior, had bleeding on his brain after he was tackled by another player at football practice Thursday.

The hit seemed ordinary enough, South Christian football coach Matt Tamminga said.

"(It was) not a vicious hit," Tamminga told 24 Hour News 8. "I've been coaching a long time, I've seen thousands of hits worse than that.

But he took a good hit (and) got up slow. I walked over him and said, 'Chris, are you all right?' And he shook his head, 'yeah, I'm all right.' "

Jansen sat out for a few plays, then put himself back in the game.

Initially, he was functioning normally and talking with other players. But he did have a headache.

Later that afternoon, after practice ended, his headache worsened and he vomited.

Jansen's mother took him to a local clinic, and doctors sent him straight to the hospital.

"By the time Chris got downtown, his vital signs were terrible, his heartbeat was below 30," Tamminga said. "So, to make a long story short, he had bleeding on the brain."

Doctors performed emergency surgery Thursday night, and inserted tubes into his head to relieve the pressure.

Now, he is making progress toward recovery, according to the most recent entry on his CarePages. The tubes were removed, and a CAT scan looked good.

Tamminga said he knows the situation could be reversed.

"If you're dealing with a head injury, err on the side of caution," he said. "This could have easily turned into something a lot worse."

Dr. Stan Skarli, a neurosurgeon at Helen DeVos' Children's Hospital, said symptoms for a concussion or severe head injury include: a headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting or a drastic change in personality or emotion.

Ignoring any of these symptoms could lead to death or serious injury.

"You get too many concussions ... and that may adversely affect (your) ability to function in society later on," Skarli said.

Said Tamminga: "It's every coach's nightmare to have a player get an injury that's a life-changing injury. We feel very fortunate that this didn't turn out that way."

EDITOR'S NOTE: Due to an editing mistake, the original online version of this story misattributed a quote to Dr. Stan Skarli. The quote was actually from South Christian coach Matt Tamminga. We sincerely regret the error.

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