After terrible concussions, UConn’s Caroline Ducharme used a Florida clinic to seek out her method again to the court docket

When Caroline Ducharme thinks in regards to the hardest moments in her life, all of it typically goes again to a interval of about two years the place she needed to grapple with the debilitating signs from a number of concussions.

There have been days the place she couldn’t get away from bed. She thinks in regards to the instances the place somebody could be speaking to her and he or she could be struggling to pay attention, to understand, to course of, to observe the dialog. And the bottom factors had been when Ducharme handled self-doubt and uncertainty about her future.

Ducharme was ranked because the fifth greatest ladies’s faculty basketball recruit within the nation in her 2021 highschool class by ESPN — forward of stars and WNBA Draft picks like Olivia Miles, Sonia Citron and Aziaha James. She was a McDonald’s All-American and now performs for probably the most iconic program within the sport, the UConn Huskies, that are shepherded by the sport’s winningest coach, Geno Auriemma.

Basketball is in her DNA. It’s a vital a part of her identification. And through this time of disaster, she began to consider a life with out the game.

“For therefore lengthy, I outlined myself as a basketball participant. I’m happy with that,” Ducharme instructed SB Nation. “Lots of people say you need to diversify. You already know, don’t put your self in a field. However I like being a basketball participant.”

“She likes that field,” her father Todd says. “She’s very comfy there.”

“That’s type of what I’ve all the time considered myself, what I all the time thought my future could be, how my life would play out,” Caroline provides. “The uncertainty of all of it, once I didn’t know what I used to be doing or what would come of it, if I might ever get again (to taking part in basketball), that was in all probability the toughest a part of it.”

Concussions threatened to rob Ducharme of her identification. They saved her away from the game she loves. She wasn’t herself. She tried to play by all of it, after which in the end pressured herself to step away from the sport and seek for solutions.

Ultimately, she discovered assist on the Aviv Clinics in The Villages, Florida, which is dwelling to a hyperbaric therapy middle. The clinic makes a speciality of holistic hyperbaric remedy and treats sufferers affected by head trauma, strokes and different mind accidents. It’s the solely clinic of its variety in the USA and solely one in every of three on Earth.

When Aviv Clinics started, it was initially supposed to deal with individuals who suffered from cognitive decline from ageing. However extra lately, the clinic has been in a position to assist younger athletes get better from concussions and deal with the signs related to them.

“Basketball is a contact sport. You’re going to get hit within the head, for positive, whether or not it’s the ball or somebody’s elbow,” Dr. Mohammed Elamir, the lead doctor at Aviv Clinics, instructed SB Nation. “Symptom clever, Caroline actually checked off numerous bins for publish concussion syndrome. Her scans positively confirmed areas of decreased metabolism which can be quite common in head accidents, regardless of the game.”

Whereas the higher sports-watching public doesn’t sometimes affiliate concussions with basketball the best way they may with soccer, knowledge from a 2024 CDC examine recognized women basketball as eighth amongst youth sports activities with the best charges of concussions — forward of boys soccer. Moreover, the examine confirmed that girls have the next probability for a sports-related concussion than males in sports activities that use the identical guidelines, like soccer and basketball. Furthermore, concussion signs that impression psychological well being are extra widespread in women.

Ducharme spent three months at Aviv Clinics in 2024. A few 12 months after she first arrived on the Florida clinic, she was about 76 miles south in Tampa. She had simply performed two minutes within the nationwide championship sport, had climbed a ladder to chop down the web and was celebrating along with her teammates, coaches and household. She appeared to her mother and father within the stands, tears coming down her face.

“When the buzzer went off, simply considering again to the place I used to be final 12 months, I in all probability wouldn’t have been in a position to sit in that enviornment. I positively wouldn’t have been in a position to put a uniform on and sub in like I did,” Caroline says. “I used to be not in a very good place mentally, simply not realizing what my future was going to be… It was positively surreal to lastly be in that second and take into consideration all of the laborious work that I’ve performed.”

The therapy she obtained at Aviv Clinics returned Ducharme to basketball. She had her life and identification again. She was a part of a nationwide championship workforce and is now within the midst of an offseason, making ready for a much bigger position in her last season with the Huskies.

“Of all of the remedies she’s performed — and imagine me, she’s tried all of them — that entire kind of holistic strategy had probably the most impression on her than something she’s ever performed,” Todd instructed SB Nation. “We truly obtained our daughter again — the previous Caroline again.”

However the street to this reduction and happiness was removed from straightforward for the Ducharmes.

Picture by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Photographs

Caroline Ducharme isn’t positive what number of concussions she’s suffered.

“Truthfully, I don’t know the precise quantity. It’s lots,” Ducharme stated. “It’s the million-dollar query. They had been all basketball-related, in a apply or sport.”

The primary vital hit to the top that Ducharme endured was on Jan. 26, 2022, throughout an 80-78 win at DePaul amidst her standout freshman season. Within the first quarter of that sport whereas battling for a ball within the air, a DePaul participant inadvertently elbowed Ducharme throughout the bridge of her nostril whereas making an attempt to field her out. Ducharme instantly crumbled to the hardwood and will really feel ache below her eyes. However she saved taking part in, 32 minutes in all, main the Huskies in scoring with 19 factors on 8-of-12 capturing in a slim street victory. It was one of many a number of performances that helped Ducharme earn a spot on the All-Large East Staff as a freshman.

However the morning after the DePaul sport is when Ducharme skilled concussion signs for the primary time, illnesses that might proceed to impression her, exacerbated by extra hits to the top.

Ducharme shrugged it off and saved taking part in. Precisely every week after the DePaul sport, UConn was at Creighton and Ducharme was defending a Bluejay who was driving towards the rim for a layup. As her opponent went up for the shot, her elbow banged Ducharme just below her left eye. She fell to the ground and tumbled into the photographers stationed alongside the baseline, then made her solution to UConn’s bench and buried her head into her fingers. She was dizzy, couldn’t see straight and instantly felt a headache. Moments later, she vomited.

“That’s when it actually obtained unhealthy,” she says. “I keep in mind not likely realizing the place I used to be. Truthfully, I don’t actually keep in mind strolling to the locker room. It was very blurry.”

Ducharme missed UConn’s subsequent 4 video games, however then performed in each one during the nationwide title sport, the place the Huskies fell to South Carolina in Minneapolis. Simply previous to the beginning of her sophomore season that fall, she took one other hit to the top in apply and missed the season-opener. She returned to the rotation and began taking part in properly once more, scoring 15 factors in a win over Iowa, then amassing 19 factors and 7 rebounds in a victory in opposition to Marquette.

Then she suffered one other blow to the top in apply in early January of 2023, the fourth for Ducharme in lower than a 12 months. Signs returned, and amongst them had been nausea, migraines, ache in her jaw, temper swings, a slowed response time, sensitivity to shiny lights and loud sounds. She missed 13 video games, then scored 10 factors in her first sport again — a house victory over Creighton.

Within the Large East Event, she skilled her fifth hit to the top in a span of 14 months. Two extra would come that August when UConn traveled to Croatia, Slovenia and Italy throughout a preseason summer season tour of Europe the place they performed exhibition video games in opposition to native groups. Ducharme performed in UConn’s first 4 video games that season, then says she obtained hit “frivolously” within the head through the Huskies’ Nov. 19, 2023 win at Minnesota, simply days earlier than the workforce flew to the Cayman Islands to play in opposition to UCLA and Kansas. Throughout that flight, lots of Ducharme’s earlier concussion signs got here roaring again when the aircraft encountered some horrible turbulence.

“Flights had been all the time unhealthy, however that one was particularly unhealthy. At that time, I simply couldn’t actually do it anymore,” Ducharme stated. “I used to be performed… And deep down, I actually didn’t know if I might be capable to come again.”

After her eighth hit to the top in lower than 22 months, she wasn’t positive if she would play basketball once more and her mother and father felt helpless.

“That’s the place it began to get scary,” her father Todd says. “That’s when it was like, we have to take a step again right here and restart and see the place we go from right here.”

Ducharme wouldn’t play in one other sport for the remainder of the 2023-24 season, which was purported to be her pure junior 12 months. She stopped going to video games as a result of her signs made it laborious to take a seat on the bench amidst the lights and sounds of an enviornment. Even for many dwelling video games in Storrs, Connecticut, she’d watch them from her bed room. Generally she might come out to the ground for warmups, however would watch the remaining from the locker room.

Picture by M. Anthony Nesmith/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photographs

Ultimately, Caroline and her household made the choice to fully step away from taking part in basketball and concentrate on discovering options. The Ducharmes known as everyone.

Todd says they first heard of Aviv Clinics from Dr. Joe Maroon, who has labored with the NFL and WWE. Maroon made the introduction after which the Ducharmes had a number of telephone calls with representatives from the clinic. One tough hurdle, Todd says, was the associated fee, because the clinic’s remedies weren’t lined by their medical health insurance. They obtained an help from the inspiration of former MLS star Taylor Twellman, whose profession was minimize brief by concussions. Assume Taylor goals to create “social change on the planet of traumatic mind accidents.” Along with serving to with the invoice, Twellman spoke to Caroline about what he went by.

Dr. Mohammed Elamir obtained concerned with Aviv Clinics in 2017 when his father, a neurologist, had a stroke. Elamir began researching methods to assist him and thru that stumbled on the work of Dr. Shai Efrati, who’s now the Chair of Aviv’s Medical Advisory Board and whose work focuses on hyperbaric drugs and mind rehabilitation.

“We purposely selected The Villages as a result of it’s the most important retirement group. There’s numerous wholesome agers, individuals who have cognitive decline from ageing and wish to enhance. However in fact, you’re going to have excessive charges of stroke and damage,” Elamir says. “However since we opened, we get athletes from everywhere with accidents, with concussions, and we now have a saying: the mind doesn’t discriminate what hurts it. So, whether or not it’s a basketball participant’s elbow, the ground or a Ford Explorer, it doesn’t matter. Damage to the mind is damage to the mind.”

Elamir says that retired NFL gamers had been amongst a few of his first sufferers at Aviv. Extra lately, present athletes like Ducharme have sought Aviv’s assist too. Elamir says he’s handled athletes from the highschool stage by post-pro retirement. To all of them, he stresses that not all hyperbaric therapy is created equal. At-home zip-up sacks usually are not the identical as medical-grade pressurized rooms with particular protocols, particularly when coping with mind accidents.

The primary query Elamir asks throughout a complimentary session of potential sufferers is: “What are your objectives in case you do that therapy?”

For a lot of of Aviv’s sufferers who’re faculty or professional athletes like Ducharme, the target is to get again to the place they had been bodily and mentally earlier than they suffered concussions.

“Then they undergo an evaluation course of, which entails specialised mind scans, particularly one thing known as a SPECT scan,” Elamir says. “It’s a metabolic scan that sees the metabolic perform of the mind, as a result of typically with publish concussion syndrome, structurally, issues are wonderful, however functionally they’re not. When you possibly can see that dysfunction, that mismatch, that tells us, ‘Aha, there may be the damage.’”

Picture by Elsa/Getty Photographs

As soon as the Ducharmes discovered Aviv and discovered pay for it, they then needed to promote their daughter on it.

“With a purpose to do that, it was nearly convincing her — not that she didn’t wish to get higher, however each time she simply thought, ‘Properly, I can get by this. I’m wonderful if I simply take a nap, or if I take my treatment, I’ll be wonderful.’ And we’re like, ‘Honey, this isn’t an ankle. This isn’t an ACL. That is your mind,’” her mom Chrissy instructed SB Nation. “Seeing these scans for the primary time was what actually did it for her.”

Caroline admits that she was in a little bit of denial. Seeing what her mind appeared like shook her. She might see the useless stem cells. Medical doctors confirmed her which components of her mind weren’t working.

There was alarm and anxiousness at first for Caroline, however then some reduction set in. Then a path ahead started to type.

“It wasn’t simply that I wasn’t powerful sufficient to play by it. There was truly one thing bodily mistaken with me,” Caroline says. “I didn’t know the way critical it was. And once you truly see it in entrance of you, they usually’re exhibiting you, it positively type of places issues in perspective. I can see it. It’s proper there. I must go and repair this.”

By April, the Ducharmes had settled on their plan. They might transfer to Florida so Caroline might get top-of-the-line therapy constantly. 5 days every week, Caroline spent 4 to 6 hours throughout their 12-week keep within the Sunshine State at Aviv. She would spend hours in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber and in addition undergo classes of bodily remedy, cognitive remedy and psychiatry.

Initially, the therapy was taxing and draining on Caroline. After a day at Aviv, she would return to the Ducharmes’ short-term dwelling in Florida, collapse on the sofa and snuggle with the household canine. Then she’d do it over again the subsequent day.

Whereas Caroline returned dwelling some days drained, she was making actual progress. Of us from UConn came over her, together with star guard Paige Bueckers and athletic coach Janelle Francisco. Nika Muhl texted her typically. Whereas visiting with Ducharme and familiarizing herself with Aviv’s therapy, Francisco even went into the hyperbaric chamber along with her and attended different appointments.

Elamir describes the atmosphere of the hyperbaric chamber as sitting in a snug chair in a small pressurized room. Ducharme would breathe 100% oxygen by a masks for 20 minutes, take the masks off for 5 minutes, then put it again on for one more 20. Forwards and backwards, forwards and backwards. She would do this for 2 hours per day, 5 days every week.

“We’re getting your oxygen stage very excessive, which has its advantages, however extra importantly, we’re getting you again to regular once you take the masks off,” Elamir explains. “And that fluctuation is what triggers the physique to develop new cells into the mind, develop new blood vessels within the mind. And that’s actually the key sauce. That’s the protocol that truly will get stimulation and development within the mind.”

Whereas she was within the hyperbaric chamber, Ducharme would additionally use a custom-built iPad created for a excessive oxygen atmosphere and full mind workout routines assigned to her by a neuropsychologist. These video games and checks are designed to set off components of her mind that had been injured.

“As we’re rising new cells with the protocol, we wish them to go to the realm of damage, and we can assist that course of and type of information a bit bit extra after we’re triggering it with these particular mind workout routines,” Elamir says.

Ultimately, about two months into her therapy, she was in a position to rework basketball again into a part of her every day routine too. By her time at Aviv although, Caroline’s mother and father had been cautious to not ask her in regards to the sport. They by no means needed to strain her. They simply needed her to really feel like herself once more.

However when Caroline was cleared to do some basketball-related actions, she and her dad went right into a gymnasium. After six months of not capturing a basketball, Caroline took 100 pictures from behind the 3-point arc. She made 84 of them.

Lastly, at dinner that evening, Todd felt compelled to talk up: “You already know, not for nothing, however that was type of cool.”

Caroline shrugged it off: “Yeah, there’s no defender. I ought to be capable to do this.”

David Butler II-Imagn Photographs

One other turning level of positivity for Ducharme got here shortly after the tip of her therapy at Aviv in July the place she had a basketball-focused exercise with an assistant coach at UConn. All the pieces went properly and he or she felt nice. She wasn’t in ache and he or she loved working up a sweat. It felt good to be in a gymnasium, dribbling and watching her shot fall by the web.

“It was the primary time I felt like I might truly do it, like I might truly come again. For therefore lengthy, I used to be type of satisfied that I used to be performed,” Caroline says. “For the final couple years, I might simply attempt to get by exercises with out throwing up, and if I didn’t throw up, I felt good, and that was an accomplishment. So to really really feel good in a exercise and revel in it once more… I might see the sunshine on the finish of the tunnel.”

Throughout that exercise, she took one other 100 pictures from 3-point land. This time, she made 91.

“I beat the rating,” she says. “That made me really feel higher.”

The street to taking part in in a aggressive Division I ladies’s faculty basketball sport nonetheless appeared like an extended one for Ducharme although.

She missed the primary 28 video games of this previous season, however began to really feel extra comfy being in arenas and on planes, and taking part in basketball at full velocity. Firstly of the season when she wasn’t taking part in, she needed to put on earplugs and located monitoring the ball to be a bit tough. Generally, she needed to go watch from the locker room. She took child steps and cherished small victories. She obtained by a full sport on the sidelines, then she obtained by a couple of with out earplugs, then she was in a position to heat up. Whereas Caroline wasn’t taking part in, her mother and father watched video games on tv from dwelling however paid shut consideration to her physique language on the bench.

“We seen when she stopped utilizing earplugs,” Todd says. “That was an enormous deal, like a milestone.”

In her follow-up with Aviv six months after leaving the clinic, Elamir says Ducharme improved her processing velocity, her govt perform and her motor abilities, some by as a lot as 12 %.

By mid-February, Ducharme’s medical doctors had cleared her to play and he or she felt prepared for it. There was only one one that needed to log out: Geno Auriemma. Finally, the choice to play or not play Caroline rested with him.

On Feb. 20, 2025, a convention name was held with Caroline, her mother and father, her medical doctors at Aviv, the coaching workers at UConn and Auriemma. The conclusion reached was that Caroline might safely play in video games for the Huskies. However earlier than the decision ended, Caroline had a query.

“Coach, are you going to play me on Saturday?”

Auriemma was noncommittal: “We’ll see.”

Nonetheless, Ducharme’s mother and father scrambled to get flights to Indianapolis the place the Huskies could be taking part in in opposition to Butler.

By Feb. 22, 461 days had handed since Ducharme performed in a sport for UConn. That evening, with two minutes and 21 seconds remaining, with UConn main by 37 factors, Auriemma appeared down the bench and locked eyes with the 6-foot-2 guard from Milton, Massachusetts.

“You wish to play?”

She didn’t trouble answering him. She simply jumped out of her seat, shortly adjusted her padded headband and ran to the scorer’s desk to test in. As she did, most of the greater than 9,100 followers — the primary sellout crowd ever at a Butler ladies’s basketball sport — stood and cheered. With 12 seconds remaining, she secured the sport’s last rebound in a dominant win for the Huskies.

“I used to be simply so excited, even simply to have the ability to put on my uniform once more,” Ducharme stated.

Picture by M. Anthony Nesmith/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photographs

Ducharme performed a season-high 11 minutes in UConn’s first-round NCAA Event win over Arkansas State, tallying six factors and 4 rebounds. She notched a steal within the Huskies’ Remaining 4 win over UCLA, and even tried a late-game 3-pointer in UConn’s nationwide championship win over South Carolina.

Almost a 12 months after she arrived at Aviv, Ducharme was now standing amidst the confetti in Tampa, celebrating a title along with her teammates. Whereas climbing the ladder to chop down her piece of the nylon web, all she was targeted on was maintaining her stability.

“She was crying, we had been all crying. It was so emotional,” Chrissy says of that day in Tampa. “Caroline launched all of that. She’s not one which cries. She’s simply not a crier. I believe simply the load of it, to be there on this second. We by no means thought we’d truly even get right here. And this workforce is basically particular. They’re simply all there for one another.”

Miles away in The Villages, the medical doctors who helped Ducharme at Aviv had been watching too, ecstatic to see her play and to win.

“We watched her evolve in entrance of us through the therapy, and to see her hoist that trophy was icing on the cake,” Elamir stated.

Ducharme is now gearing up for what is going to possible be her last season at UConn. She returns to a workforce aiming to defend its nationwide championship. Whereas her buddy Paige Bueckers is off to the WNBA, the Huskies nonetheless convey again the Remaining 4’s Most Excellent Participant in Azzi Fudd, All-American Sarah Sturdy and lightning fast guard KK Arnold.

The roster is loaded, however there’s room for Ducharme to have an actual position. Versatile wings like her aren’t straightforward to seek out and can assist groups win numerous video games. All through her disjointed profession, UConn is 17-1 in contests the place Ducharme knocks down a number of 3-pointers.

Her mother and father try to mood their expectations. Earlier than her concussions, Caroline was top-of-the-line gamers within the Large East. With the dedication she’s proven, they know she’s able to being that once more.

“It’s one factor to only be a standard human once more, and one other one to be a ladies’s basketball participant at UConn. So, there’s one other stage. She’s getting there. She’s shut. This will probably be her first — technically — wholesome offseason since she’s been at UConn. We’re hopeful and excited and nervous and all of the feelings,” Todd Ducharme says.

“I might not guess in opposition to her. So, I don’t know the way it’s going to occur. I don’t know the way she’s going to do it, however she is going to determine it out.”