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American Morning

Head Injury Dangers

Aired February 25, 2004 - 07:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: He is one of the top high school wrestlers in Texas, but John Prigg, Jr. is now fighting to regain memory after a severe head injury back on Valentine's Day. The 17- year-old senior has near total amnesia since his head struck a wood floor bordering the mat during a match earlier this month.
His parents, Donna and John Prigg, Sr., are with us now from Dallas, along with John, Jr., to talk about the current ordeal with their family.

And we welcome you here to AMERICAN MORNING, and thanks for sharing your story with us.

DONNA PRIGG, SON HAS AMNESIA: Thank you.

HEMMER: Good morning. I'd like to start with John, Jr. if I could. How are you feeling, John?

JOHN PRIGG, JR., SUFFERED AMNESIA IN WRESTLING ACCIDENT: I'm feeling OK.

HEMMER: Are you able to relate to us and our audience at all anything about this experience or your memories as a wrestler, as we look at this videotape, what, a sterling record of 49-0?

JOHN PRIGG, JR.: Not really. I don't remember wrestling or anything.

HEMMER: John, do you know the parents who are sitting on both sides of you?

JOHN PRIGG, JR.: Yes, now. It's just kind of all coming back, like, every day I get up, and they ask me, you know, "What's your mom's name? What's your dad's name?" By now I have kind of got, you know, a little more comfortable now.

HEMMER: So, you're saying you have a little bit of recall, is that what you're saying? Or you're just growing more comfortable with the people around you?

JOHN PRIGG, JR.: Just growing, I think, more comfortable.

HEMMER: To your father, how did this happen?

JOHN PRIGG, SR., SON HAS AMNESIA: Well, he was in an accident at a wrestling meet at the regional tournament here in Texas. It was at The Colony High School in Lewisville, and he was wrestling with another 215-pounder. And when they are in that kind of a tournament, both kids are going full speed and doing the best they can to make sure that they pin the other man.

And one of the throws that they were using in the meet, they were both off the mat, and Jay fell down underneath the other opponent, hit the side of his head and then back of his head on the wood floor outside the mat. You know, it's an accident. You know, you expect kind of injuries here and there, but, you know, this kind of thing is pretty devastating.

HEMMER: When did you realize your son had lost his memory, Mr. Prigg?

JOHN PRIGG, SR.: It was right after he hit his head.

HEMMER: Yes, what was that moment or that conversation like that related to you?

JOHN PRIGG, SR.: It was just a heart-sinking feeling when your son doesn't even know he's a wrestler in a wrestling meet, in his wrestling uniform. That's pretty devastating.

HEMMER: To Mrs. Prigg, how have you worked with your son in the past few days and weeks to help him regain memory?

D. PRIGG: Usually in the morning when he gets up, we'll go through pictures, and I'll try to remind him again. I'll show him a picture and I'll say, 'OK, this is your aunt,' and I'll give the name. 'And this is your father,' and I'll give the name. And we basically go over pictures, and we go over what he did the day before -- things like that.

HEMMER: Yes, well, reading about his own personality, he seems like truly a charming young man. Have you been able to pick up on his old personality today?

D. PRIGG: Well, I noticed that it seems that little pieces of his personality are coming back now. People who don't know my son, they don't know that he's very outgoing, the first one with a practical joke, the first one with a hug, a pat on a back, a little wrestling move. Right now, he just seems like a very quiet, shy, withdrawn teenager, and that's not my son.

HEMMER: Listen, I want to wish you the absolute best of luck, and thanks for sharing with us this morning. I know it is an extremely trying time for you, but our best to you and the hope that we have that your son returns with you. That's John Prigg, Sr., Donna Prigg and John Prigg, Jr. there in Dallas, Texas. Thank you for your time this morning.

JOHN PRIGG, SR.: Thank you very much.

D. PRIGG: Thank you.

HEMMER: Much appreciated.

And we'll talk more about this on the medical side, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. A tough, tough tragic story there.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a very unusual story as well. Lots of concussions, sports-related injuries, amnesia, at least this profound of amnesia, is very uncommon.

Sometimes after a concussion when someone really gets their bell rung, which is what they call it in sports terms, a little bit of confusion after a fall or a blow to the head or something like that, you can have a bit of amnesia, meaning 10-15 seconds to a few minutes. To have it last even a day, that's very unusual to have it last as long now -- as it has with John, even more unusual.

Concussion symptoms, again that's something that people think of in sports, common concussion symptoms you can see there: headaches, balance problems, inability to focus in the hours. You may have trouble remembering, Bill. I'm not exactly sure what happened, especially around the event itself, but certainly you'd still remember your family, people around you, things like that. You may have trouble concentrating, making decisions as well.

Post-concussion symptoms, what happens afterwards a few days to a few months. You can feel tired, feel sad, anxious or listless. You have some psychological symptoms like that. You can become easily irritated. All those things are much more common.

The sort of amnesia that's being described here, where you have both antegrade and retrograde amnesia, meaning that you forgot what happened around the event and you forgot things before the event, like your parents, but you're also forgetting things that are about to happen to you. And that's called antegrade amnesia. It's a very unusual situation. You know, it's hard to explain, quite honestly, quite frankly.

HEMMER: Listening to his mother talk about the daily exercises, the mental exercises they go through, what is the possibility that he may regain knowing his father and knowing his mother?

GUPTA: I'd have to say it's still pretty good, and here's why. He's had a whole battery of tests now, including CAT scans, MRI scans, things like that, to look at his brain. He didn't have a blood collection or any other anatomical reason to have this sort of memory loss while he -- it's been going on for some time. The vast majority of people who have amnestic (ph) sort of events after a blow to the head, a concussion, do get it back. John's case has been going on a lot longer than normal, but still the data, the statistics would be in his favor.

HEMMER: Our best to him. Thank you, Sanjay.

GUPTA: All right, thank you.

HEMMER: See you later this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.







Aired February 25, 2004 - 07:45   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: He is one of the top high school wrestlers in Texas, but John Prigg, Jr. is now fighting to regain memory after a severe head injury back on Valentine's Day. The 17- year-old senior has near total amnesia since his head struck a wood floor bordering the mat during a match earlier this month.
His parents, Donna and John Prigg, Sr., are with us now from Dallas, along with John, Jr., to talk about the current ordeal with their family.

And we welcome you here to AMERICAN MORNING, and thanks for sharing your story with us.

DONNA PRIGG, SON HAS AMNESIA: Thank you.

HEMMER: Good morning. I'd like to start with John, Jr. if I could. How are you feeling, John?

JOHN PRIGG, JR., SUFFERED AMNESIA IN WRESTLING ACCIDENT: I'm feeling OK.

HEMMER: Are you able to relate to us and our audience at all anything about this experience or your memories as a wrestler, as we look at this videotape, what, a sterling record of 49-0?

JOHN PRIGG, JR.: Not really. I don't remember wrestling or anything.

HEMMER: John, do you know the parents who are sitting on both sides of you?

JOHN PRIGG, JR.: Yes, now. It's just kind of all coming back, like, every day I get up, and they ask me, you know, "What's your mom's name? What's your dad's name?" By now I have kind of got, you know, a little more comfortable now.

HEMMER: So, you're saying you have a little bit of recall, is that what you're saying? Or you're just growing more comfortable with the people around you?

JOHN PRIGG, JR.: Just growing, I think, more comfortable.

HEMMER: To your father, how did this happen?

JOHN PRIGG, SR., SON HAS AMNESIA: Well, he was in an accident at a wrestling meet at the regional tournament here in Texas. It was at The Colony High School in Lewisville, and he was wrestling with another 215-pounder. And when they are in that kind of a tournament, both kids are going full speed and doing the best they can to make sure that they pin the other man.

And one of the throws that they were using in the meet, they were both off the mat, and Jay fell down underneath the other opponent, hit the side of his head and then back of his head on the wood floor outside the mat. You know, it's an accident. You know, you expect kind of injuries here and there, but, you know, this kind of thing is pretty devastating.

HEMMER: When did you realize your son had lost his memory, Mr. Prigg?

JOHN PRIGG, SR.: It was right after he hit his head.

HEMMER: Yes, what was that moment or that conversation like that related to you?

JOHN PRIGG, SR.: It was just a heart-sinking feeling when your son doesn't even know he's a wrestler in a wrestling meet, in his wrestling uniform. That's pretty devastating.

HEMMER: To Mrs. Prigg, how have you worked with your son in the past few days and weeks to help him regain memory?

D. PRIGG: Usually in the morning when he gets up, we'll go through pictures, and I'll try to remind him again. I'll show him a picture and I'll say, 'OK, this is your aunt,' and I'll give the name. 'And this is your father,' and I'll give the name. And we basically go over pictures, and we go over what he did the day before -- things like that.

HEMMER: Yes, well, reading about his own personality, he seems like truly a charming young man. Have you been able to pick up on his old personality today?

D. PRIGG: Well, I noticed that it seems that little pieces of his personality are coming back now. People who don't know my son, they don't know that he's very outgoing, the first one with a practical joke, the first one with a hug, a pat on a back, a little wrestling move. Right now, he just seems like a very quiet, shy, withdrawn teenager, and that's not my son.

HEMMER: Listen, I want to wish you the absolute best of luck, and thanks for sharing with us this morning. I know it is an extremely trying time for you, but our best to you and the hope that we have that your son returns with you. That's John Prigg, Sr., Donna Prigg and John Prigg, Jr. there in Dallas, Texas. Thank you for your time this morning.

JOHN PRIGG, SR.: Thank you very much.

D. PRIGG: Thank you.

HEMMER: Much appreciated.

And we'll talk more about this on the medical side, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. A tough, tough tragic story there.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a very unusual story as well. Lots of concussions, sports-related injuries, amnesia, at least this profound of amnesia, is very uncommon.

Sometimes after a concussion when someone really gets their bell rung, which is what they call it in sports terms, a little bit of confusion after a fall or a blow to the head or something like that, you can have a bit of amnesia, meaning 10-15 seconds to a few minutes. To have it last even a day, that's very unusual to have it last as long now -- as it has with John, even more unusual.

Concussion symptoms, again that's something that people think of in sports, common concussion symptoms you can see there: headaches, balance problems, inability to focus in the hours. You may have trouble remembering, Bill. I'm not exactly sure what happened, especially around the event itself, but certainly you'd still remember your family, people around you, things like that. You may have trouble concentrating, making decisions as well.

Post-concussion symptoms, what happens afterwards a few days to a few months. You can feel tired, feel sad, anxious or listless. You have some psychological symptoms like that. You can become easily irritated. All those things are much more common.

The sort of amnesia that's being described here, where you have both antegrade and retrograde amnesia, meaning that you forgot what happened around the event and you forgot things before the event, like your parents, but you're also forgetting things that are about to happen to you. And that's called antegrade amnesia. It's a very unusual situation. You know, it's hard to explain, quite honestly, quite frankly.

HEMMER: Listening to his mother talk about the daily exercises, the mental exercises they go through, what is the possibility that he may regain knowing his father and knowing his mother?

GUPTA: I'd have to say it's still pretty good, and here's why. He's had a whole battery of tests now, including CAT scans, MRI scans, things like that, to look at his brain. He didn't have a blood collection or any other anatomical reason to have this sort of memory loss while he -- it's been going on for some time. The vast majority of people who have amnestic (ph) sort of events after a blow to the head, a concussion, do get it back. John's case has been going on a lot longer than normal, but still the data, the statistics would be in his favor.

HEMMER: Our best to him. Thank you, Sanjay.

GUPTA: All right, thank you.

HEMMER: See you later this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.