TOWSON, Md. — Towson Women's assistant soccer coach Brad Hartin lives with hydrocephalus, a neurological condition he calls challenging and difficult, but not something that defines the way he lives.
Born with the condition, Hartin explained that hydrocephalus causes cerebral spinal fluid to become blocked within the brain.
"In layman's terms it's called water on the brain, so the cerebral spinal fluid that goes through your system gets blocked somewhere within the ventricles of the brain," Hartin said.
Towson Women's assistant soccer coach Brad Hartin shares his daily experience living with hydrocephalus
Hartin experienced early symptoms like nausea, dizziness, headaches, and migraines. The insertion of a shunt mitigated those symptoms.
"The purpose of it is to replace the block in the ventricle to allow the fluid to travel through my system," Hartin said.
Although technology has evolved and he has had his shunt replaced, Hartin has begun to experience newer symptoms like memory loss.
"I hope it doesn't affect me too much, but there are obviously there are times where I don't feel well and things like that," Hartin said. "I try not to make it affect my job performance, but ultimately I think in terms of cognitive and things like that there are moments where I forget things. I've tried to be a little bit better about writing things down, that's still a struggle for me, so I need to be better at it, but, or I ask questions again, um, to make sure that I have clarity on the issue."
Despite the condition, Hartin has received tremendous support from the Towson University community. That support and his love for soccer make every day worthwhile.
"I love being out here working with younger people, teaching them the game, but also teaching them about life because sport does that, right?" Hartin said. "Sports provides you the opportunity to be able to not just teach about the game and competition and, and do all those other things and skill but also teach about teamwork and development of life and how you wanna push yourself in certain areas and and help others."
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
