Parents & Personal Health Records: Do You Know The Score?

As a parent, our children have numerous athletic activities. Is it me or do sports feel more violent today than when I was young and competing? Sidelines are now adorned with kids in boots, on crutches nursing wounds. Today, being injured is not “if” but “when”. So having your daughter’s or son’s medical information readily available via an online personal health record (PHR) makes that trip to the Emergency Room (ER) less frustrating and more efficient. Case in point:

This weekend my boys and I watched our 17 year old college bound soccer superstar friend from Maryland play soccer. This is U-18 Travel soccer and it features the highest levels of soccer; soccer at its best…and sometimes…its worst.
At one point the goalie went up to make a save, the next, he was lying on the ground, face down. During the save, he had been projected against the metal goal post by an opposing player. His head made violent contact with the post. It all happened in an instant. The noise was chilling; I knew it was bad.

The goalie on the ground with his dad hovering over him was at “when”.
“Do you know what day it is? Do you know what year? Do you know the score?” I asked the dazed goalie, now lying face up, eyes swollen, drifting in and out of sleep.

“No” was his response.

“Hang in there” I responded. We kept him awake until the EMS team came and transported him to a level 2 trauma center nearby.

Fortunately the player only suffered a mild concussion, but as a parent, being prepared for an emergency can be the difference in spending more or less time in the ER, when time and pain are critical variables. A digital personal health record gives you access to your child’s medical history, x-rays, and their last tetanus shot when you need it most — the critical moment when an ER doctor asks for a medical history.