Mitchell Agude overcame a severe childhood injury to make it to year two with the Lions

The Lions have re-signed Mitchell Agude for the 2025 season. He was an undrafted rookie with the Lions last year and showed promise towards the end of the season. His injury history over his college and NFL career has been unremarkable, but the calm waters of his football career belie an injury tsunami from his childhood.

INJURY HISTORY (26 years old)

2024 rookie year: No known injuries. Played in 4 of last 5 regular season games. Was a healthy inactive for the playoff game.

College: No significant injuries noted.

Age 9: Suffered a severe head injury while skateboarding as described in a 2019 feature article by Maggie Vanoni of the Los Angeles Daily News.

Here's a quote from that article: "He doesn’t remember being in a coma for one and a half days while doctors drained fluid from his head as the fall caused a severe brain bleed and seizure. He doesn’t remember his mother, Grace Agude, praying at the side of his hospital bed after doctors told her her youngest child would most likely never wake up."

WHAT DID AGUDE OVERCOME?

Agude had a severe traumatic brain injury that can result in many serious consequences.

It may have caused elevated intracranial pressures which can result in brain herniation and death if not corrected. An external ventricular drain (a small tube) may have been inserted into his skull to drain cerebrospinal fluid which would lower the pressures.

The brain bleed may have necessitated surgery to drain the blood to prevent compression and permanent damage to the brain.

Seizure activity will occur with severe traumatic brain injury up to 30% of the time. Antiseizure medication was likely given acutely as seizures in this setting can lead to bodily injury and even death.

WHAT WAS THE OUTCOME?

Credit to Agude's resilience for what appears to be a full recovery without any significant effects. The article even mentions that he has been concussed playing football since the childhood incident. Graduating from UCLA and making it to his second year in the NFL are testaments to his mental and physical health.

IS THERE CONCERN GOING FORWARD?

Agude's head injury was more than just a concussion as it included a brain bleed, seizure, and coma. It's possible that this history lowers his brain's threshold of getting future concussions, but it's hard to say as there is no way to accurately predict or measure a concussion threshold.

A player's emotional response is important to consider as well. Every human handles trauma differently which makes it difficult for anyone, even Agude himself, to predict how a future event may affect the person emotionally. Even if a future concussion is a routine one, it could generate a long discussion amongst all interested parties - player, family, team, & doctors. Given the severity of what Agude has already overcome, he understandably might have less tolerance for risk going forward.

In that 2019 article, Agude gives a glimpse into the mentality that has propelled him to a second year with the Lions: “I’m just going to keep on working and be eager to prove doubters wrong. I just can’t quit when it comes to school, when it comes to family, because my whole goal in life is to take care of my family, so I just know that there is no reason for me to quit.”

This article originally appeared on Lions Wire: Lions' Mitchell Agude overcame severe childhood injury to make NFL

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