Concussions Uncovered with Jodie Kidd from the Concussion Center

In this episode of Bird's Eye View, host Alex Seay from Bird Law Group welcomes Jodie Kidd from The Concussion Center. Together, they debunk common misconceptions about concussions and discuss the importance of proper diagnosis and treatment.

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Transcript

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I'm Alex C. with Birds Law Group. Here we are back again with another episode of Birds Eye View. And today, to talk about the legal world and life, we have here with us Jodi Kidd, a very good friend of mine that I met in the legal space. Jodi is with the Concussion Center, and it's one of the medical facilities that some of our clients treat at when they've been injured. Jodi, you want to tell us a little bit about yourself and the Concussion Center? Yes. Well, I'm Jodi Kidd, and like Alex said, I'm with the Concussion Center. I work with Dr. Bashek and Dr. Allen. Dr. Bashek is a neurologist, Dr. Allen is an audiologist. I always like to start the Birds Eye View with something a little more lighthearted than, although we will be playing a game today, so get ready for that. But I want to talk about when we met, because it's a fun story of mine. I was in the GTLA lead class, I believe, and we were on one of the class retreats or meetings, and I think it was in Athens? Athens. It was definitely in Athens. Yeah. Jodi was there as a sponsor of GTLA, and we headed off, and I fondly remember that trip. Well, what happens in Athens stays in Athens. Thank God. Yeah, that's a good thing. But I wanted to have Jodi on today to talk about the Concussion Center and talk about things that I think we as lawyers can be doing or can offer to help our clients. I personally, at my office, I do not direct my clients' medical care. I see that as something that's outside of my wheelhouse. I'm their lawyer. I'm the representative, but if they have a question or they're having trouble, you know locating care that's where I feel like I can come in and help and the concussion center has been one of those places that we've we've found to be very helpful for a lot of our clients and something I wanted to talk about today was You know just some things about the concussion center about concussions that I've learned just through working with you guys That I didn't know and I think if more people know those things They'll be better suited to help their clients So I agree. I thought we would start You know, you said what happens in Athens stays and happens, but I was gonna start with a little truth or dare Oh Lord. Oh Lord now. I'm just kidding. I don't I don't want to play that game about Athens either or anywhere really Especially that's not gonna be on a blog cast out there in the in the Just in the public Right? Okay, so I'm going to hand you... Oh, we're going to get serious now. Yes, we are. We're going to get serious. So I've got a yes and I've got a no. All right, I'm going to hand you these. And I'm going to ask you some questions about the Concussion Center and the answers to these questions. I didn't necessarily know until I started working with the Concussion Center and talking with you about it. So the first question I have for you today is, do you have to hit your head to have a concussion? No. See, I think... These are cute. Okay. That's something I didn't know. I've learned it over the years as we've operated in this space, but I think it's a myth or maybe just a... Well, I learned that in my rec because when I got to the hospital, they said, did you hit your head? And I said, no. So they assumed I didn't have a concussion and that was it. Just send me on my way. That brings me to another question I have that I learned from you guys. And that is, if you've gone to the hospital and they told you you didn't have a concussion, you don't need to go to the Concussion Center, right? That is not true. Most of the time, a concussion is missed at the ER, not because they're doing anything wrong, but because they're looking for broken bones, blood, head injuries, just anything like that. So they're not actually focusing on the concussion. So it's always a good idea when you're in a car wreck to at least be tested for a concussion, because you don't have to hit your head and you also do not have to be knocked out. And that's one of the things that they had asked me, were you not done conscious? Well, I was in my case, but I didn't hit my head. So they still didn't. So you could have either one. And that's where Dr. Baszak and the Concussion Center comes in to do the specialized testing. Yes. And the specialized analysis to determine whether or not there's been some sort of head injury. Yes. I love how enthusiastic the yes was, I really do. I love what I do, Alex. I know, I know. And I love helping people, so. Yeah, and that really comes out, and I think that's one of the reasons we connected when we met, right? And that's something that we found as a commonality just between our businesses and our personalities. Okay, so one other, I say one other, there might be a couple more, but you don't have to hit your head to have a concussion, and we've talked about that, but one other thing that I learned through one of my clients is a lack of oxygen to the brain can also lead to some devastating effects neurologically, right? Yes, it can. And those types of, we'll call them hypoxic brain injuries, or lack of oxygen to the brain is what we see in some of our clients. Can the concussion center help with that? Yes, we can. We help with that. Yes, we can. Sorry if this is cheesy. I thought it would be fun. I think it's great. OK, good. So you can. You can help those clients then. Yes, we can help them. We can help them with cognitive therapy, with vestibular physical therapy. We do testing for their ocular motor skills. So there's a wide variety of tests that we do. And the clients that come to us after they've had some sort of traumatic brain injury or hit their head maybe or whiplash in a car wreck. Yes. I found out, this is what I have learned, is that if you have whiplash nine out of 10 times, you have a concussion. So a lot of times at the ER, they'll say, oh, you have whiplash. Well, if you see that on the rec report, maybe you take out the River Mead questionnaire, which asks them a couple of questions. And if they say yes to two or more, then you say you may want to call the concussion center and get some extra testing. Because with whiplash, your brains move. Yeah, yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Yes, it's moving. No, you don't want to stop with the diagnosis of whiplash. And one of the things we're always worried about, and we try to implore our clients to be concerned about, is don't stop your treatment too early. You want to follow through with that. And you want to make sure that if you are, we had a client call the other day, and he had finished his treatment with an orthopedist and with a chiropractor and then with the concussion center. But he called me, and he was like, And I'm like, I'm still having headaches. And if someone is still experiencing those symptoms, should they call the concussion center? They should call us. We went into that a lot. Yes. Yes. I'm not good at this. I need to press. Yes. Okay. So they should. That would be a... You should definitely follow up. For your treatment for a concussion, it usually can last six to eight weeks, sometimes three to four months, depending on the severity of it. One thing a lot of people ask me is, how long after the concussion can you get treatment for it? Well, you can actually go for up to two years because there's people that they've been suffering from these headaches or they can't think right, they have loss of memory, and they just don't really realize that it's a concussion. And they can come to us then and we can do cognitive therapy and help them get better. And with the bird's eye view, after we talk about something serious, I usually try to get more personal, right? It's about law and life and from a bird's eye view. So tell us a little bit about how long you've been in the legal industry and working with crazy lawyers like myself. Okay. Well, I've been in the legal industry for about 18 years. I've been involved with the Georgia trial lawyers, the State Bar of Georgia, and the Georgia defense lawyers. So I've worked with all the different organizations. But I would say my claim to fame now is that Rachel Elze is my daughter with Noor Media Group and she is doing an amazing job and I cannot be more proud as a mother. Oh, see, we have a lot of noi joy around here. We have for a little over a year. It's something we very much enjoy too. When we met, was that five years ago? 2020. 2020. So when we met Alex four years ago, I just had to tell you then, I knew that you were going to have your own firm. I knew that you were going to be a leader in your industry way before a lot of others. And you have done it. And I just want you to know that I'm so proud of you. Oh, thank you. And I love you. I love Evie. I love Ryan. Everly. Yeah. Well, I couldn't do it without all of the strong people that are in my corner and you are one of them. Yes, I am. Right. And one thing that I have found or I know because we're friends and I also think brings an extra level of just understanding for you to the clients that you work with. with is that you yourself were involved in a car wreck, right? Yes, I was, a horrible car wreck. And in that experience, tell us a little bit about how that has played a role in what you're able to offer to your clients and maybe kind of impacts the way you handle the client communication. I always thought I was a very empathetic person. I have a huge heart, I always care about everyone, but until it happened to me, I had no idea how much my life would be changed as far as I, just everything. I couldn't work, my mental state of mind, the physical pain all the time. It turned my whole world upside down and it changed me. It changed me for the worst for a while, but I've come out of it. in a better place than I've ever been. And thanks to people like you, Alex, people like my daughter, Rachel, and my son, Jake, have helped me come back even better. I wanted to be done. And they said, oh, nope, come on, let's go. And so when I was offered the job at the concussion center, I was really excited to work for a provider this time, especially with everything I'd went through. And so when I get a call from an attorney and they're like, we think this might be what's going on with our client, I'll say, okay, and I make sure to follow through to make sure they get their appointment because it's important to me that they get taken care of. It's very important. So I take it a little personal, you could say. One of the things that I've noticed with attorneys is that it's missed, the concussion is missed. Or someone may call and say, I don't know what's up with this client. They won't call me back. They missed their appointment. They're crazy. Well, one thing I like to tell people is think about this. They probably have a concussion. So that should encourage you more to make sure that they get some testing and get some help and get some rehabilitation. And the concussion center is one of the only places in Atlanta that actually does the treatment and the rehabilitation. A lot of people test for it, but they don't actually do the rehab, and we do. Yeah, and that's one thing we found with our clients that have treated with the concussion center. It's really, it's been a one -stop shop, right? There's a network of providers that they're able to work with to make sure the clients can get what they need. Exactly. Yeah, and one thing I like to say here, or we say here at Bird Law Group is with us. at our firm, you're never just a number, right? You're never just a file in the cloud, I was going to say on the shelf, but we don't have paper files anymore. So you're never just a file in the cloud here, you're a client. And we know your story, we know you, and I feel that I can trust you to treat clients the same way. That's personal. And I know that clients are not a number from first -hand experience. And it just means a lot to me that I know that if a client is treating with a concussion center, they're getting that continuity of being treated as a person and not just another number. So that's... I had someone the other day, they called me back and they said, my client called me to tell me that. She said, since her car wreck, it was the first time she had ever felt heard by a doctor. Wow. And that made me feel so good. Absolutely. I was... I'm proud of who I work for. But, you know, getting a little bit of accolades here and there does help. And I love to go back and tell the doctors what they said. Right. Right. So I think we've covered business. I think we've covered law and life. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for lunch. Oh, me too. Where are we going? Can we get out of here now? No, in all seriousness, thank you so much for being on. And thank you for being you and helping my clients and just honestly being such a pleasure to work with and such a great friend. I'm really glad you were able to be on with us today. Thank you, Alex. We appreciate you having me on today and always a pleasure to be with you. And I'm stealing you for the next couple of hours, too. Yeah, no, I was serious about that lunch. If you think your client is in a need of any of our services today, please give me a call. Do you think you need us? We're already working on it. All right. And that is it for the bird's eye view for this episode. If you want to be a part of the conversation, reach out. Let me know. We'd love to have you on. We'd love to talk to you about law and life from a bird's eye view. Be sure to follow us and stay tuned for the next episode.