title: First, ask no harmful questions.
abstract: How many of you, following an injury to a star player, are asked a question like this from a teammate, parent, coach, or administrator: "Will she be able to play in Saturday's game?" Nothing wrong with the query, right? We get it all the time. The intriguing aspect is that often it's the first question out of that person's mouth. Not "How is she?" or "How will this affect her life down the road?" In fact, the question has little to do with the athlete's health, which should be our foremost concern.
authors.affiliation: Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA. gord@stanford.edu.
authors.forename: Gordon O
authors.initials: GO
authors.lastname: Matheson