Bishop Alexander Carter acquires machine to detect concussions in high school athletes

J.G. Larocque, a coach at Bishop Alexander Carter Catholic school in Hanmer, hopes a new machine will prevent and detect concussions in student athletes.

The high school recently spent $20 thousand to purchase a machine that uses different lights to detect changes in an athlete's reaction time.

Discrepancies in reaction time show coaches if a player has a concussion, even if they aren't showing symptoms.  

Sir, I was driving home after the football game and I had to pull over, I couldn't see anything, everything went black.- Bishop Alexander Carter student to coach J.G. Larocque

​Larocque heads up athletics at the school, and said he pushed to get the machine after seeing countless student athletes struggle to get diagnosed and treated for concussions.

"It was just one student after another, after another," Larocque said, "and you know, we're not a huge school. About 350 students. And those are just the students who came and saw me."

"What put the icing on the cake for us to go ahead and purchase this thing," Larocque said, "was you know, when one of our football players comes to see me the next day and says, 'sir I was driving home after the football game and I had to pull over, I couldn't see anything, everything went black.'"

In June the province passed Bill 149 - "Rowan's Law" - in memory of an Ottawa teen and rugby player who died in 2013 after she sustained three concussions.

The law will look at how to prevent and mitigate head injuries in sports and how to create awareness about head injuries in sports.