Posted on January 14
In the world of cinema, producer and director Nancy Florence Savard is known for her animated family films, such as her latest Felix and Morga’s Treasure. His latest documentary film To keep all his headHowever, it falls into a completely different niche: concussion in young athletes.
This mother of three, now quite young, has a long personal experience in this field, because each of them has suffered at least one concussion. Two have fully recovered, but her eldest daughter, Emily Rose, still has the aftereffects, eight years later.
These life experiences prompted her to delve into and discuss this question with several professionals and young athletes who have experienced one or more concussions. This approach resulted in the film co-starring Richard Lacombe (director) and Catherine Dupont (screenwriter), which is now on the waves of Société Radio-Canada.
“The idea of the documentary is to educate young people, parents, coaches and teachers to be vigilant,” says the producer at Head of House 10e Quebec Ave. “In the case of a concussion, we deal with an invisible injury that the person in question often does not diagnose correctly. And if you do not treat it well, there can be lasting consequences. Especially since the brain is still developing.”
MI Savard has the feeling that some young people, haunted by a strong desire to continue their sport or fear of being ostracized, are trying to forget their state of health, even denying or concealing that the blow they received to the head was serious.
Some will say, ‘Ah! I have a little headache, but I’m fine. “And they will go back to their business. But by doing so, they risk getting a second blow because the first one didn’t completely heal.”
My goal is to do something useful, to tell young people who think they are invincible that if they don’t take the time to stop, they’re putting their brains at risk.
Nancy Florence Savard
Social pressure from those around can also be strong at times for young adults who have taken a beating to carry on, continues M.I Savard.
Concussions don’t just happen in hockey. The film shows the victims of young men who were skiing and cycling and encouragementEven surfing! Sometimes symptoms do not appear until 24 to 48 hours later.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PressE ARCHIVES
Nancy Florence Savard, Producer and Director
The experts interviewed by the director use chilling words to explain the situation. We talk about “neuroencephalic injury”, “metabolic storm”, “silent epidemic”.
As in all other diseases, research is progressing, but, according to the director, at a slower pace than in many other diseases. “It’s a little less because it’s not something to die for,” she thinks.
And sometimes the research just doesn’t seem to go in the right direction, as the director and her family experienced. When her oldest daughter was diagnosed with a concussion, she was advised to take Tylenol every four hours and stay in the dark longer. It didn’t go well.
For Emily Rose, this had very detrimental effects on her mental health. This is where we discovered that depending on where your brain is injured in the cranial box, the effects and consequences are not the same for the patient.
Nancy Florence Savard
However, research is progressing and the documentary presents what is currently being done in this field in Quebec. “You have to know what the consequences of concussion could be. But we also know that solutions exist,”I Savard.
Broadcasting on Saturday January 15th at 10:30pm on the Doc Humanité (ICI TÉLÉ) series and now on Tou.tv.