Spine specialist offers insight on neck and spine injuries in the NFL

All right, let's revisit this topic because, boy, it is on all of our minds and in our hearts. Terrifying moments in Sunday's Lions game against the Vikings as linebacker Jack Campbell suffered a neck injury. If you were watching the game, you saw it happen. It didn't look terrible until we saw that he did not move for several minutes. Concerns run high any time. There's a high-impact collision, of course, involving the neck or the spine. Let's talk about this. Joining us with more on these types of injuries and what recovery looks like, Dr. Solomon Kogan, owner and clinic director at The Nerve. Urban Disc Institute, you also, doctor, worked with the Lions for more than a decade. Yeah, 14 years. Sideline stuff. So when you see that happen yesterday during the game, where does your mind go? What are you looking for? It's terrifying. I mean, any time you see someone go limp after a hit, you worry about really a couple different things. One, it's either a brain injury, like a concussion, or something happened to the spinal cord. And either one can be very concerning. And what clues, so when you were on the sidelines for those Lions games for all those years, what is the initial protocol when you're out there? It's trying to mobilize him as much as possible? Well, the first thing that happens is the first responder right there does not try and move him. He wants to, because you're worried there could be a fracture in the spine or an unstable fracture. And if you move him immediately... That can make a small problem, not small, but smaller problem catastrophic. So the first thing you need to do is you need to assess ABCs, airway, breathing, and circulation. And you want to see their consciousness. And then when the team gets out and you saw all these people come out, then what they wanted to do is move him onto his back, but they move his whole body as a whole, stabilizing his neck and shoulders. And they're going to remove his helmet or face mask for sure so they can manage any breathing problems. Because even if it is a cervical problem or a problem with the cord, someone could potentially stop breathing. So when we talk about the cervical portion of the spine, we're talking about in the neck area, right? In the neck area. What is the biggest fear when it comes to a neck injury or cervical spinal injury? Well, I mean, really the biggest fear is someone becoming paralyzed. I mean, that's really worry that there's a permanent damage. One thing that's kind of scary to people is when they go out, if someone's not conscious or becomes unconscious, Thank you very much. They always will treat this as a potential cervical injury. So just because someone's being stabilized and moved off on a backboard doesn't mean that there's a catastrophic injury, but they're being safe and they want to make sure that there isn't. All right, so what does recovery or what does treatment look like? And again, you know, we don't know any details about Jack Campbell's injuries. But in general, when you deal with a football player getting, whether it's a minor injury, a neck injury or something more catastrophic, what does that treatment look like and then what's recovery look like? Well, it's all over the map, really depending on what it is. If it was a simple injury, they're out of the hospital, back in the training facility and so forth, to something as far as major surgery and a big recovery. So we don't know what's going on, and I don't wanna speculate on what's happening. And I believe at three o'clock, we're gonna have a statement. But we worry that it's a serious thing. We hope that our thoughts or prayers are with him and his family that it's not. At this point, we just don't know. Explain to us just a simple anatomy lesson. When you have, so within the vertebra, you've got nerves, right, sending signals? Yeah, the spinal cord. So the neck has a natural C-shaped curve, and that's by design, and it's really to be a shock absorber. And going through the neck is the spinal cord and then the spinal nerves come out from there. And they made spearing illegal several years ago because when your neck is bent forward or straight, you get an axial compression of the spine and you're at much more risk of severe injuries as opposed to if your head is up, what happens is your neck. It can kind of bend and act like a shock absorber and protect itself. And if we look at like the earlier earlier in the season, Jaden and Jaden Reed, you know, his injury, he saw him drop his head and he ended up having a more severe injury. So just because someone's head is up, his team gets kind of neutral. It's flipped back, extended back, but just because that happened, it's better, but it doesn't mean that we're without risk. All right, well, we will find out. Boy, we are all just hoping the best. Dr. Kobin, thank you so much. Thanks for having me. We appreciate your expertise, helping to answer some of our questions about this. We'll be right back.