The last Wednesday in September has been designated in Ontario as ‘Rowan’s Law Day’ to help raise awareness about concussion safety.
Rowan’s Law is named for Rowan Stringer. Rowan was a high school rugby player from Ottawa who died in 2013 from ‘second impact syndrome’, a condition which causes swelling of the brain when a head injury occurs prior to the healing of a previous head injury.
Rowan’s Law instituted a number of different recommendations and protocols to promote concussion awareness and athlete safety. The law makes it mandatory for sports organizations to:
- Ensure that athletes under 26, parents of athletes under 18, coaches, trainers, and officials to confirm every year that they have reviewed Ontario’s Concussion Awareness Resources.
- Establish a Concussion Code of Conduct setting out rules of behaviour to support concussion prevention
- Establish removal from sport and return to sport protocol.
The provincial government expects that the rules requiring the institution of removal from sport and return to sport protocols will be in play by January 1 of 2021. School boards in Ontario were also required to bring their concussion policies into compliance with the requirements of Rowan’s Law as well.
As has been said before, Rowan’s death was a preventable tragedy. The passage of Rowan’s Law and the institution of concussion awareness programs and safety protocols should hopefully be successful in preventing the many serious consequences of concussions.
Daniel & Partners LLP has previously been a sponsor of the Ontario Brain Injury Conference. That event provided support, education, and awareness of the issues related with traumatic brain injuries. Our dedicated team of personal injury lawyers are committed to ensuring that our clients have the necessary resources to recover from their injuries, however they may have occurred.
Our office offers a free initial consultation for personal injury matters. Please contact us to arrange an appointment as soon as possible after your injury has occurred.
Photo taken by Jim Monk, licensed under the creative commons (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
