00:00This is the Injury Report, presented by NYU Langone Health.
00:05This week's Injury Report begins with a scary moment at Jets training camp.
00:09Cornerback Quantes Stiggers passed out near the sideline during Tuesday's joint practice with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,
00:15bringing practice to a halt as he was treated by medical personnel and eventually taken to a local hospital.
00:21The good news is Stiggers was released from the hospital later that night,
00:24and Jets head coach Aaron Glenn says he's doing well.
00:27But Stiggers is now in the NFL's concussion protocol after showing symptoms the following day.
00:33What we still don't know is exactly what caused him to lose consciousness,
00:37whether it was connected to a hit, dehydration, or something else.
00:41So, what can cause an athlete to pass out?
00:44How do doctors determine whether a collapse is connected to a concussion?
00:48And what has to happen medically before Stiggers can safely return to the field?
00:52To help us understand it all, we're joined by Dr. Matthew Apichela,
00:55sports medicine physician from NYU Langone Health, for this week's Injury Report.
00:59You see him right there.
01:01Dr. Apichela, how you doing?
01:03I'm doing good. Thanks for having me.
01:05Oh, glad to have you here.
01:06Let's start with this.
01:07And let's start with the part that was really scary to watch.
01:10Quantes Stiggers, he comes off the field after a play,
01:12then he passes out on the sideline.
01:14When an athlete suddenly loses consciousness like that,
01:17what are the first things that a medical staff is trying to rule out?
01:21Yeah, it's a great question.
01:23And like you said, it can be a scary thing to see on a sideline.
01:26But one of the first things that we're thinking about as medical personnel on the sideline there
01:30is some sort of cardiac emergency, right?
01:33So, we like to think sudden cardiac death until proven otherwise,
01:36when an athlete collapses during the field of play.
01:38And so, that's one of the first things we're trying to rule out when somebody goes down.
01:42And then once we've kind of assessed them quickly and maybe ruled that out,
01:46then we start to think about other reasons that they could have collapsed.
01:49And that could be from heat exhaustion.
01:51That could be from heat illness, dehydration.
01:54It can be from electrolyte abnormalities or low blood sugar.
01:58And it can be from a traumatic injury, right?
02:00So, a hit to the head or neck that could have precipitated it.
02:04Last thing for me here, Dr. Apicella,
02:06if a non-athlete loses consciousness and for whatever reason that could happen
02:10and then is dealing with concussion symptoms,
02:12would they be treated any differently than an athlete like Stiggers in this case?
02:17No, I don't think so.
02:19I mean, my patients that I see that may have a similar type of injury,
02:24we would do the same thing.
02:25We would rule out any sort of reason for the collapse,
02:28any sort of structural or cardiac abnormality.
02:31And then if they were dealing with a concussion,
02:33we would start with that kind of stepwise process to return them back to sport once they're ready.
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