Personal Injury Law

Serious Brain Damage May Not Show Up On MRI

By Michael Phelan

Boston University Medical School's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy has been studying the brains of former NFL players who donated their brains for medical research. The Center has now studied the brains of six former NFL players, and five of the six brains studied were found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy. This form of brain damage is exceedingly rare in people who are as young as the five deceased NFL players were when they died. It only shows up in people this young if they have suffered repetitive brain injuries.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy caused depression, demential, memory loss, irritability and other serious symptoms of brain damage in these athletes. See my earlier blogs about former Patriot, Ted Johnson, and former Eagle, Andre Waters. Significantly, chronic traumatic encephalopathy DOES NOT SHOW UP ON CT SCANS, X-RAYS, OR MRIs! The condition can be confirmed only by post-mortem tissue analysis. Incredibly, there are still some unscrupulous defense doctors who testify that serious brain damage must show up on MRI. The Center's work and the generosity of the athletes who continue to donate their brains to the Center will finally debunk this junk defense science.

Full post as published by Richmond Virginia Personal Injury Lawyer on September 27, 2008 (boomark / email).