Keep your eye on the ball, Charlie Brown

We have all seen the video and laughed at the misfortune of Charlie Brown.  His concerning lack of a balance righting response brought him straight down on his back and head.  What we didn’t see was the aftermath of this incident, and what it took to put Charlie Brown back together again.

Injury 1 – Grade 1 Hamstring strain –
How - Lack of warm up and over extension of the right leg after missing the ball
Recovery - Physical Therapy focused on myofascial release, static and dynamic stretching along with open and closed chain strengthening

Injury 2 – Sacral contusion –
How -  Landing on the sacrum and the tailbone (coccyx) from a double-your-height height hurts even more. 
Recovery - Physical Therapy was required to improve sacral alignment as well as decrease pain and tightness in the surrounding hip flexors, low back muscles, and glutes.  Charlie then required extensive core stabilization and body mechanics training to avoid bad movement patterns that his body learned after this injury.  He had to sit on a donut for several weeks due to pain

Injury 3 – Concussion –
How - Landing on the back of his head caused temporary loss of consciousness and vision problems.  
Diagnosis -  He took an IMPACT test that helped the physician diagnose a concussion. 
Recovery - Physical Therapy focused on improving tightness of the neck muscles, especially the area where the head and the neck meet, as well as improve vision and vestibular problems.  He was kept out of gym class for several months to decrease the risk of being hit in the head and suffering second impact syndrome.

 

Injury 4 – Distrust of girls – Physical Therapy could not help this.  It was a long time before Charlie was able to trust girls again, and he and Lucy have recently been able to talk without resentment and anger.

Ken Guzzardo, PT, DPT, OCS, SCS