Sometimes it’s not only hope, courage or inspiration…how about innovation? How about innovation with a purpose, to save another human being?

The Sunday Series (23): How to Save A Life

It might just be the number one risk to your child who loves to play sports. A traumatic brain injury. It happens every day on sports fields across this nation, especially in games like football, lacrosse and hockey. One bad hit, one blow to the head can literally change a life, or possibly end one.

Have you ever stopped to think most football players in the world are under the age of 14? Not everyone makes the high school or college team and even fewer make it to the big-time, the NFL. But one big hit can mean there’s one less player to go after a dream…or even the chance to live a full life, robbed of that opportunity by an invisible threat inside their head, a concussion, or worse a traumatic or fatal brain injury.

Enter Greg Merrill and Brain Sentry.

Greg Merrill is in business, and in the business of doing well, but his motivation is doing good. Greg calls himself a problem solver and he’s been doing it for years now. Back in the early 90’s, Greg created a company to help doctors simulate minimally invasive surgeries, so they could have a track to run on, instead of diving into what had then had become a revolution, but one for which doctors had received little or no training in medical school. Greg’s company and his simulators helped bring them up to speed and became a leader in medical training.

Then there was the problem of child obesity. As soon as his own boys were born Greg was in-tune with the epidemic of unfit kids and video games. Greg realized you can’t force kids to stop playing, so why not get them physically active at the same time. Before Wii ever hit the market, Greg had started a company to simulate exercise during video games. But in the midst of raising capital to launch with some major companies, the great recession hit and his idea, with lack of funding, was shut down.

No matter, if you talk to Greg Merrill you realize he’s a man who will not be deterred and not give up, he’s a thinker, he takes action and he wants to give back. He started helping a company which assisted the military with brain injury assessments, figuring out which soldiers in battle needed to be evacuated and which could fight. The experience led him to start thinking about sports and children and maybe the number one threat today out on the field – head injuries.

Don’t kid yourself, your kid is at risk. And no, stopping them from playing is not the answer, never is. But it is all about which child to assess and which to allow to keep playing. Greg’s vision is to eliminate brain injuries in sports. With Brain Sentry, he’s looking at stopping the acute brain injury of second-impact syndrome, where a child has a concussion, but continues to play, with the symptoms ignored or undiagnosed, leading to brain swelling and death. The other issue is a chronic or dramatic brain injury over a long period of time, leading to issues down the road with brain function or even chronic health issues.

One little sensor, invented by Greg Merrill and his team, is looking to change all that.

If you read the paragraphs above, you will know this is not a commercial, it’s all about education. In most cases, the young sports teams are coached by parent volunteers, not medical experts. It’s a great joy to coach your son or daughter’s team, or even other children, and it does wonders for self-esteem, and for lessons in teamwork for still-developing minds. But those minds are threatened when someone receives, or even gives a hit to the head. It’s tough for children to diagnose themselves and even tougher for coaches and parents to know when it’s OK to let the child play and when to take them out to be assessed. As Greg says, “there is nothing more important than your child’s brain and it’s difficult to know if he or she has had a concussion and whether they should be pulled from the game.”

Brain Sentry changes all that. It’s pretty simple, a helmet-mounted sensor helps identify players who should be assessed for a concussion. When a child takes a hard blow to the head, a red light starts blinking, as a warning sign to assess the child for a head injury. The goal is to help prevent further injury, or even death. The sensor is simple to use with nothing to maintain and no batteries to charge.

http://brainsentry.com/

It’s important and worthy of space here. Among 38 million boys and girls that participate in organized youth sports and 135 million participants (ages 6+) in team sports in the U.S., concussions are one of the most commonly reported injuries. The majority of fatal sports-related brain injuries occur to those less than 18 years old. Less than 50% of high school football players report their concussions and nearly all of the cases of SIS (second-impact syndrome, which can be fatal), have occurred in athletes younger than 18 years old.

Now, from Pop Warner teams to Division One football programs like LSU, the sensors are being used, concussions are being caught early and strategies about tackling are being changed. The bottom line is lives can be saved. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=F_CJywYA9E8

Sometimes the human spirit, heart and mind work in perfect synergy. Greg Merrill has found a way to focus on our most precious gifts and protect them and his effort is worthy of space here on this blog. No one pitched this idea or product to me, I heard about it and decided to take action.

It’s action, not reaction that makes a difference and in this case could literally save a life.

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.
Mark

(for more information on Brain Sentry, click on the links in this blog post, or simply go to www.brainsentry.com)
(to learn how Brain Sentry is affecting college sports: https://owa-cj.ft.newyorklife.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=J36hhrCWMkWqkGz4M0M-aOqDD7z_IdEIiAzV44W-WseSplBGLqB1j3j7_SwRcJBo_HUb6763zeY.&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.theneworleansadvocate.com%2fsports%2f8727529-171%2faccelerometers-give-lsu-football-a)

Mark Brodinsky, Author, Blogger, Financial Services
It Takes 2. Surviving Breast Cancer: A Spouse’s Story
#1 Amazon Best-Seller
www.spouses-story.com
markbrodinsky@gmail.com

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For ideas for The Sunday Series, send an e-mail to markbrodinsky@gmail.com

How inspiring it is to be part of an experience, hearing about and honoring someone who attained the goal you aspire to reach one day.
Living to 100.

A full century. Not just a full circle, but a full moon, a supermoon, the biggest and brightest you have ever seen. If there are five-hundred twenty-five thousand six-hundred minutes in a year, well I don’t even want to do the math on what that is when you live past the century mark. I don’t love math anyway, so let’s talk about a life in words, instead of numbers. After all, that’s the ultimate goal, to live a life worth talking about!

Did you hear the one about…? That was the classic opening line for Herbert “Hunky” Matz. I heard a great story yesterday, listening to his son Ron talk about his dad’s impact on other people. I met Hunky a few times and listened to some of his stories, laughed at his jokes and basked in the glow of his larger-than-life personality. I can’t do justice in writing about all he accomplished, nor tell his life story here. In fact I would be doing an injustice to try, because the Ronster did such a terrific job of eulogizing his Dad, I’m simply going to share the link below and let Ron tell his dad’s story. NEVER in my life have I seen a round of applause after a eulogy, but I witnessed one yesterday. That was inspiring. A true celebration of a man who lived a life worthy of that applause.

100 years, 2 months, and 23 days. Every day lived to the fullest. A life worthy of not just applause, but a standing “O”.

“May you live as long as you want to, and want to as long as you live.”
– Herbert “Hunky” Matz.

(http://www.sollevinson.com/notice.php?lr=loc&id=25373) Click the link, then click the video button. Ron’s eulogy to Hunky starts at about 18 minutes in, you won’t be sorry you gave up the next 12 minutes to watch or listen, but maybe sorry if you don’t.

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.
Mark

Mark Brodinsky, Author, Blogger, Financial Services
It Takes 2. Surviving Breast Cancer: A Spouse’s Story
#1 Amazon Best-Seller
www.spouses-story.com
www.amazon.com/author/markbrodinsky
markbrodinsky@gmail.com

To follow this blog, and get an e-mail on future posts, please click the follow button on your screen.

For starters it was a great open, now we’ve got 161 games and seven months to work on the close – a world championship.

Opening Day in Baltimore @ Oriole Park at Camden Yards really couldn’t have gone much better. From touching tributes to those members of the Orioles family lost during the off-season, to the first-pitch strike under a gorgeous blue sky, on a perfectly manicured diamond illuminated in sunlight, you couldn’t ask for more.

Except maybe a victory. For O’s fans, a 2-1 win over the Boston Red Sox is always worth it, on Opening Day it’s even more meaningful, unless of course it’s a head-to-head battle in the postseason. Let’s hope.

That’s a quick summary of how it all began, but what about the game, the game of life and baseball?

The similarities are impossible to ignore, the synergy is on most days, off-the-charts. For starters, baseball is quite literally the greatest soap opera in sports. No other professional game is played almost every day for six months. The drama inside those nine innings, one without a clock, is on most days a rollercoaster ride of moments from base hits, to home runs, to stolen bases, to acrobatic catches, to a difference in inches defining a pitch as either a ball or a strike. How many days of our lives (a soap opera right?), are much the same, with little moments, or even bigger ones making up a significant part of the ebb and flow of our time spent working, or spending time with family and friends. No two days are alike, no two games are the same.

And it’s a marathon, not a sprint. The baseball season is a long one, which can become tedious at times, and at others provide such incredible excitement and elation it’s hard to describe. Ever have your own six-month period of time, or a year like that? But it’s also the big moments, the ones which take your breath away which are rarer still – the grand slam, a player hitting for the cycle, a no-hitter, or the perfect game. A lot of time and attention is paid to those moments, just like the special ones in your own life: birth, weddings, funerals, anniversaries, milestone birthdays, graduations, big awards, your own sporting achievements or championships, or those of your children. Each one a moment to be remembered and for which attention should be paid, before the next day comes and life keeps moving forward.

And what about success? Baseball is a lesson in overcoming failure, it’s practice, perseverance and battling through the obstacles which helps you to be the best, to stand out. The smallest margins can make you a hero, get you into the hall of fame. Hitting .300 means only 3 hits out of every 10 times up to the plate. A pitcher who is a 20-game winner means that player might have lost half as many as he won. The game of baseball does not allow you to have constant, uninterrupted success for truly long periods of time, it’s just the way the game is built. Life does the same. Rarely is there a long run of “luck”, before some type of adversity, an obstacle, a bad day, or a slump, levels the playing field. But fight through it, be consistent, focus on your true talents, work in service to others, as a team with the most important people in your life and you too will rise to the top.

The beginning of a new baseball season is underway. Use it to take stock of your own life, to focus on your successes, to battle through your failures, to learn from your mistakes, to strive for consistency and productivity to become an all-star in the eyes of those who matter most to you. Make your own life a diamond, a shining example to be remembered for all time.

Now get out there and play ball!

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.
Mark

Mark Brodinsky, Author
It Takes 2. Surviving Breast Cancer: A Spouse’s Story
#1 Amazon Best-Seller
www.spouses-story.com
markbrodinsky@gmail.com

To follow It’s Just About… Life and get an e-mail when a new post appears, please click the follow button on the screen.