My name is Kailey Janosko and this is my Girl Scout Gold Award project. The project entails a website and video that will hopefully raise awareness of the severity of brain injuries in young athletes. 

 

I decided to call it "You Can't Just Walk It Off" because I strongly believe that the severity of concussions can be diminished if athletes are aware of their injury and don't "walk it off" and go back into the game.

 I want to educate athletes and coaches of the severity of this type of injury and show them what it is really like inside the mind of a concussion patient.

​

My passion for this cause evolved from when I was a sophomore in high school and I had 2 concussions right after each other (medically referred to as Second Impact Syndrome) and suffered from brain trauma symptoms for upwards of 11 months and still, as a graduated senior, have issues associated with brain trauma. During the long recovery process I felt alone and scared of what was happening to me. I tried to walk off my first concussion and my coaches didn't hold me back like they should have which is part of why my brain trauma symptoms became so prominent for so long.

 

My purpose of making this website and video is because I don't want other athletes to suffer through Second Impact Syndrome, especially since not every person is as lucky as I was. Second Impact Syndrome can cause severe brain swelling and even death, which is not something that any athlete should have to endure due to lack of knowledge of the need to sit out of the game and not continue play until all symptoms are gone.