Personal Injury Law

12 Athletes Leaving Brains to Concussion Study

By Bruce Stern

With the recent and overwhelming reports of the severe brain trauma suffered, and more often ignored, by members of the National Football League, researchers at Boston University's School of Medicine have a new plan to study the long-term effects of concussion trauma on a player's brain. A dozen athletes, including six N.F.L. players and a former United States women’s soccer player, have agreed to donate their brains after their deaths to the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy.

The new Boston University center is being financed primarily by the university and a $100,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health, said Dr. Robert A. Stern, the program co-director along with McKee. It will operate in collaboration with the Sports Legacy Institute, a nonprofit organization founded last year by Chris Nowinski, the former Harvard University football player and professional wrestler, and Dr. Robert Cantu, a co-director of the Neurological Sports Injury Center at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston.

You can read more on this story in a New York Times article here.

Full post as published by Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog on September 23, 2008 (boomark / email).