Follow-up to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Found in 6th Former NFL Player
Last Wednesday, I posted the story regarding the new sign of brain damage in Tom McHale, a former NFL lineman who died in May at the age of 45. Mr. McHale died from what is known as C.T.E. which stands for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. Mr. McHale was the sixth NFL veteran between the ages of 36 and 50 who had been evaluated for this condition after death.
This story is extremely important not only from a health policy standpoint, but for neurolawyers who represent individuals with acquired traumatic brain injury. Previous reports from concussion experts suggested that NFL football players sustained no permanent damage following football-related concussions. According to Dr. Daniel P. Perl, Director of Neuropathology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, “I think with a sixth case identified, out of six, for a condition that is incredibly rare in the general population, there is more than enough evidence that football is clearly strongly related to the presence of this pathology.”
In what could have been a chapter out of the book “Doubt is Their Product” was a comment made by Jeff Pash, the NFL’s executive vice president for labor who was quoted in the article as stating: “There are a great many people who have played football and other contact sports for many years and at high levels who do not appear to have suffered these types of deficits. Whether it’s President Ford or major business leaders, whether it’s people on television.” This comment was quickly refuted by Dr. Perl who stated that many members of a group not having a condition is irrelevant to the question of how many do have it and why. Dr. Perl stated, “Let’s say 20% are susceptible to something – 80% are not going to show anything. But if 20% have what should otherwise be a very rare condition, and that could be the case here, you can’t rely on the 80% to suggest that there is no problem.”
Hopefully, this study, will go a long way in refuting the defense arguments that patients with mild traumatic brain injury/concussions always get better.