Saskatchewan mother calls for safer football helmets after son’s head injury

The family of a Saskatchewan high school football player is calling on schools to use better helmets after he suffered a head injury during a game.

Hunter Gronick, a Grade 12 student at Greenall High School in Balgonie, Sask., experienced a head injury during his Sept. 10 football game. His Balgonie Greenall Griffins were away, facing the Swift Current Comprehensive High School Colts.

“He was doing awesome. He didn’t have any major hits that anybody could tell. Then, he just fell onto the field at one point and that was the last play,” Sabrina Gronick, Hunter’s mother said.

“The coach recalls him saying that he couldn’t see, he couldn’t hear and he collapsed, and then started vomiting.”

Hunter was rushed to hospital for a CT scan when paramedics arrived. He was then taken from the hospital in Swift Current to Regina via air ambulance. In Regina, he underwent an hours-long surgery to remove a major portion of his skull, Sabrina told Global News in an interview.

Story continues below advertisement

To protect other high school football players in Saskatchewan, and prevent their families from having to go through the same experience as Hunter’s, his family launched the Hunter’s Headstrong Initiative. It calls on Saskatchewan schools to provide better, safer helmets to football players in order to prevent head injuries.

Get weekly health news

Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.

“I understand that it’s not a fix,” Sabrina said, noting that the goal of the initiative is to minimize the chance of head injuries. She is waiting for the high schools athletic association to approve the equipment for use in Saskatchewan.

Patrick Neary, a University of Regina professor with the faculty of kinesiology and health studies, said the effects of brain injuries can be severe. He said options like the guardian cap, soft padding that can be attached to the outside of a helmet, may not always successfully prevent head injuries.

“I hope there’s not a false sense of security when people put the guardian cap on,“ the professor said, explaining that the pads may be ineffective because “something exterior to the brain is not necessarily going to prevent that concussion from happening.”

Hunter is now stable, despite the injury’s effects on his brain and brain stem, his mother said.

“He’s very, very, very slowly achieving milestones,” Sabrina said. “He’s still an extremely long ways away from recovery. He can open his eyes, but at the same time he’s not tracking us. Or when he looks at you, it’s almost like he’s looking past you.”

Story continues below advertisement

“Hunter will never be the same kind of guy that he was before,” she continued.

He played football at his high school for two years.

“Hunter is very much a go-getter and very much into camaraderie and that kind of stuff. He loves his team. He loves the game,” his mother said.