Concussion
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| Meet pediatrician Aaron Dalan, former NFL tackle |
Remember when you went to the doctor
when you were little and your heart
started pounding when you heard the
doorknob twist…and what if the doctor
who walked in really did fill the
doorframe at 6’7” and it was not your
imagination that he was larger than
life? Meet pediatrician Aaron Dalan,
whose gentle healing side has replaced
the fiercely competitive, tough-as-nails
Oakland Raider he once was. His days are
now filled with children, including his
own, instead of the locker room banter
characteristic of a typical NFL team. He was hard to miss in high school, in class as well as on the field where he was the largest, and one of the most intimidating players in the league. But it was his ferocious appetite for literature and Greek mythology that his high school English teacher and football coach Phil Langston, remembers best. “Aaron was one of the most intelligent and well-read students I ever had. It was hard for me to manage a debate during his class period, because he really knew his stuff. He usually out-maneuvered us.” That was also true on the field where he was known for having “great feet.” A starting offensive lineman for the UW his last two years, Dalan was also named to the Academic All-America team and the All-PAC-10. In an interesting twist, he took his medical school entrance exams the day before he was drafted by the Oakland Raiders in 1999. “As a lineman, 75% of my hits were helmet-to-helmet,” says Dalan. “That’s just the way it was. I spent eight years of my life engrossed in the gladiator mentality, so I understand it pretty well. The question was, were we tough enough to give and take hits, stay in the game, and play through it.” But that’s now changing, and Dr. Dalan sees the awareness increasing at every level. “ Five years ago, quarterbacks Ben Roethlisberger and Kurt Warner would have been ostracized for speaking up about their concussions. Now they sit out until their medical team gives them permission to return, and they are setting a better example for the kids who come through my door.” As a pediatrician, Dr. Dalan’s biggest challenges are educating parents as to the subtleties of concussion symptoms, and making sure his young patients know that if noise bothers them, lights are suddenly annoying, or they feel like they’re “in a fog”, they need to make sure to tell an adult. The good news is, things are improving. Aaron recently educated his son’s T-ball team about the dangers of concussions. “The information I shared with these young athletes and their parents was more than I knew on the subject through all my playing years. I make sure to impress upon the kids that they’ll need to use their brain much longer than their body. The earlier they learn about the importance of concussion safety the better off they’ll be, and maybe we won’t see teenagers with multiple concussions so often anymore.” Coach Langston has fond memories of Aaron, and was not at all surprised that he chose medical school over the NFL. “Aaron had a different mindset,” he said recently. “He was destined to serve, and he always cared a great deal about young people, even as a teenager. Make no mistake, he was a force on and off the field. But what I saw was a young man with a giant heart who is now doing what he was destined to do. He is a very special man.” Dr. Aaron Dalan now practices at the Northwest Pediatric Center in Centralia, WA. He was a member of the National Medical Honor Society and recipient of the Frederic C. Moll Prize in Pediatrics. |
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