New York Times Misses The Real Story Of Ben Roethlisberger, By Ignoring His Brain Injuries

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Posted on 30th July 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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It’s the brain injury, stupid.

That’s what I would say to The New York Times regarding its profile Friday of disgraced Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. The story, headlined “A Reputation In Ruins,”  traces Roethlisberger’s life from high school to  the NFL, interviewing his friends and associates.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/sports/football/30quarterback.html?_r=1&ref=sportsThe

The article is about Roethlisberger’s fall from grace, from being a hero with two Super Bowl titles and a $102 million contract to a man acting like a thug, accused of sexually assaulting a very drunk, defenseless woman in the bathroom of a Georgia nightclub. Roethlisberger wasn’t charged in that case, but he was suspended for six games and ordered to undergo a behaviorial evaluation.

I have written several blogs about how Roethlisberger’s history of brain injury is a textbook explanation for his recent change in behavior, his despicable actions. The quarterback was in a near-fatal motorcycle where he cracked his helmetless head in 2006.  And Roethlisberger has sustained several concussions while playing.

http://www.tbilaw.com/blog/2010/03/football-and-brain-damage-the-cautionary-tale-of-steelers-quarterback-roethlisberger.html?preview=true&preview_id=326&preview_nonce=a274bf3c9d

Yet, I read The Times story several times and saw two references to Roethlisberger’s motorcycle accident, and nothing about his concussions. And the idea that his brain injuries may be a factor in his behavior isn’t even raised by The Times.

The Times makes a big point of the fact that as Roethlisberger emerged as a star football player in high school, the team’s quarterback, he developed a sense of entitlement. His classmates described him as “cocky,” and not exactly a team player. He would miss practices.

Doesn’t that description apply to a good number of young rising-star athletes who make it to professional sports, not only football but baseball and basketball as well? What’s so shocking about a super star athlete being cocky? That’s the equivalent of a dog-bites-man story for sports.

Anyway, when Roethlisberger first came to play for Pittsburgh he was polite and low-key, a guy who didn’t even drink alcohol, according to those who knew him.

“But Roethlisberger’s behavior, by many accounts, changed after he won his first Super Bowl, in February 2006,”  The Times wrote. “Four months later, he sustained head injuries in a motorcycle crash. He was not wearing a helmet.”

I’d submit that the brain trauma from the accident and concussions had a lot more to do with Roethlisberger winding up being accused of sexual assault this year — and being sued by a woman who alleges he raped her in Lake Tahoe – than the Super Bowl win going to his head.

But you’d never know that from The Times’ story. That one paragraph I quoted here is the only mention of brain injury in the story.        

    

   

New Helmet Was A Lifesaver For Olympic Rower James Cracknell, But It Didn’t Shield Him From Serious Brain Injury

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Posted on 29th July 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Doctors believe that Olympic rower/adventurer James Cracknell’s new helmet saved his life last week.  

Cracknell sustained traumatic brain injury after being struck by a truck while cycling in Arizona filming a documentary for Discovery Channel, his wife has disclosed to the press.

http://road.cc/content/news/20957-james-cracknells-wife-reveals-extent-his-injuries

Cracknell’s wife, Beverley Turner, said that at one point his condition was so dire that she thought they’d have to pull the plug on his life support. She added that it might take six months for Cracknell to recover from his injuries. But I wonder  to what extent he will recover, and what will the long-term impact of his traumatic brain injury?

Cracknell is semi-conscious in a neuro-trauma recovery ward, and in press interviews Turner said that she’s banking that the fact that he’s an athlete will help him pull through and recover despite his head injuries. 

Cracknell was hit from behind and reportedly fractured his skull at the back of his head. But his injury is actually in the front of his brain, because his brain shot forward when his helmeted head hit the road. He sustained a contrecoup injury to his frontal lobe, with bleeding and swelling. The frontal lobe is the part of the brain that governs personality, decision making and motivation, his wife told the press, “All the characteristics that make James who he is.”    

Luckily for Cracknell he had just bought a new Alpina bike helmet, which is designed so that it fits low on the back of the head. That design helped Cracknell. Doctors said that the helmet, which split in two when Cracknell hit the ground, saved his life.

Cracknell is alive, but he still suffered serious brain injury, despite his helmet. He is in a coma.

Doctors are saying that Cracknell will make a full recovery, which is a rather ridiculous prognosis at this juncture. Cracknell’s wife is correct: He will have a long recovery. And I’m afraid, because of the location of Cracknell’s brain injuries, his recovery is going to be a very difficult one, with no guarantees that he will emerge the same man as he was before the accident. 

NFL Owns Up To Long-Term Dangers Of Concussions In New Locker Room Poster

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Posted on 28th July 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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I wonder to what extent the National Football League has really changed its stance on concussions. 

The league, long criticized for downplaying and denying the long-term damage of of concussions, is making a poster for team locker rooms that will spell out rather frankly the dangers of brain injury, according to The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/sports/football/27concussion.html?ref=football

The paper published a picture of the league’s new poster with the story it published Tuesday, which was headlined “NFL Asserts Greater Risks of Head Injury.”

The poster, which The Times says will also be given to players in a brochure form, boldly notes the connection of concussions to depression and the early onset of dementia. It also warns that repeated concussions “can change your life and your family’s life forever,” according to The Times.

And the poster also has photos depicting kids playing sports, reminding the pro players that “other athletes are watching.”

 The idea of  creating the new poster comes from the NFL’s new head, neck and spine medical committee, with the support of league commissioner Roger Goodell, The Times reported.  And the text was written by the medical committee along with the players’ union and the Centers for Disease Control. 

But Times reporter Alan Schwartz also noted that the NFL is still giving former players who have symptoms of early-onset dementia a hard time over disability payments. The older players have been deemed ineligible for the richer disability payments that players with on-field injuries receive.

 

Critics Blast NFL For Releasing Flawed Helmet-Safety Results

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Posted on 26th July 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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The National Football League has been trying to show the public and Washington that it is taking brain injury seriously, rather than denying any responsibility or liability for ex-players who end up having some form of dementia  later in their lives. 

After trying to rehabilitate its image, the league then made a big blunder. In this case, the NFL is being taken to task for releasing data on tests conducted on the safety of helmets, data that has been roundly criticized as deeply flawed. The New York Times wrote about the situation on Sunday, in a story headlined ”Releasing Disputed Data on Helmets Put the Heat on NFL.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/sports/football/25nfl.html?_r=1&ref=football

Last Friday the league and the players’ union sent a memo to officials, players and the media that said that three of the 16 helmet models tested had done the best, in terms of protecting players. Two of the three that performed well were made by the official NFL licensee, Riddell, and the third was done by Schutt.

The problem is that just a few months ago the NFL’s helmet testing was blasted by a congressman as inaccurate and infected –  and NFL officials agreed with him. The ongoing flap over the NFL’s seeming indifference to player brain injury ultimately led to the resignations of the heads of  the league’s brain injury research committee.

The new leaders of that committee, Dr. Hunt Batjer and Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, at a hearing in March said they would essentially throw out the work of the men they had succeeded. That was supposed to have included the helmet testing results.

Instead, six pages of test results were released last week. They were carefully worded, according to Times reporter Alan Schwartz, to explain that the results “could not be extrapolated to collegiate, high school or youth football.”

One flaw of the helmet tests, according to The Times, is that they only simulated ”the highest 1 percent of forces to cause concussions.” 

The NFL didn’t make any friends in Congress releasing the helmet test results. Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., immediately wrote a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Weiner had grilled Batjer and Ellenboger in a recent hearing in Manhattan that touched on the testing , whose methodology has been criticized.

According to The Times, Weiner wrote, “Yesterday’s announcement of the results of the NFL helmet testing study is a disturbing step backward.”       

Not exactly what you want to have a congressman telling you.

Student Drowned In Backyard Pool As His Friends Partied

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Posted on 26th July 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Several days ago, we blogged about the fact that when a person is drowning, they physically cannot scream for help or thrash around to get a lifeguard’s — or anyone’s — attention. The reality is the opposite of whatever you have ever seen about drowning victims in TV shows like “Baywatch” and in films.

http://www.tbilaw.com/blog/2010/07/how-a-drowning-really-looks-not-the-false-images-of-tv-and-film.html?preview=true&preview_id=731&preview_nonce=008c504315

Well, unfortunately, there was a death in Long Island this weekend that illustrated what we said about drowning. Nelson Cole, 21, of Brooklyn drowned in a pool Sunday as his friends partied nearby him.      

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/07/26/2010-07-26_bklyn_man_drowns_as_pals_party.html

Cole, a student at the Rochester Institute of Technology, was attending a birthday party in Plainview. But he died even though partygoers were nearby. He did not yell for help, or wave his arms to try to get everyone’s attention. Drowning people don’t do that in real life.

Cole’s friends pulled his body out of the deep end of the pool at 4 a.m. He didn’t have a heartbeat, and paramedics couldn’t revive him.    

 

MIT Researchers Find That Gene May Help Slow Down Alzheimer’s Disease

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Posted on 25th July 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Alzheimer’s disease is one of the cruelest maladies that can be inflicted on a person and their family. It can rob someone of not only their memories, but their dignity. And loved ones are tormented as the man or woman they spent their life with doesn’t even know who they are.

So far, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease. But there is abundant research being done now on the disease, and there was promising news last week from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Scientists there have successfully slowed down memory loss and suppressed  the diminishment of learning abililty on mice that have Alzheimer’s. These MIT researchers did this by working with a gene in the mouse brain, SIRTU, which regulates the production of sirtuin one, a type of protein.

Both The Wall Street Journal, in a story headlined “Gene Shows Promise for Alzheimer’,”  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704421304575383341668014752.html

and The New York Times, in an article headlined “Researchers Find Potential in a New Approach to Alzheimer’s Disease,”  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/health/research/24alzheimers.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

wrote about MIT’s findings last week.

Of course, the hope is that a drug based on the MIT research can be developed for humans that will increase their sirtuin levels, and thus ward off Alzheimer’s disease. That is a big leap, but if offers some hope to those praying for a cure.

According to The Journal’s explanation, the MIT researchers genetically engineered mice to produce more sirtuin. As those mice got older, they retained more of their memory and cognitive functions. The mice without the additional sirtuin, or no sirtuin at all, suffered significant drops in their learning  abilityand memory as they got older.

 Alzheimer’s affects as much as one-third of those who reach age 80, according to The Journal, with its hallmark symptoms of  memory loss and impaired thinking. Those are believed to be caused by amytoid plaques in the brain. The Journal explained that these plaques are created when special proteins “get broken up into smaller fragments known as amytoid peptides.”

But these peptdes can be broken down into even smaller fragments, at which point that aren’t harmful to the brain. And this is exactly what sirtuin does, according to The Journal.   

The Times story, which ran a day after The Journal’s, noted that there are already substances that activate sirtuin in humans. One of them is resveratrol, which can be found in red wine and some foods. And a company, Sirtrus, has developed drugs that duplicate the effects of resveratrol, according to The Times.

The paper wrote that there is a lot of research being done on sirtuin because it seems to promote longevity, in part “because it seems to protect the body’s various organs against disease by stepping up maintenance programs.”

 

Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor May Have Had Concussion In Fall That Led To Hip Surgery

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Posted on 24th July 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, who may have sustained a concussion when she fell out of bed and hurt her hip July 17, remained in the hospital Saturday in critical condition, The Los Angeles Times reported.

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-zsa-zsa-little-better-20100724,0,3311338.story

Gabor, 93, underwent hip surgery at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center Monday. Her husband, Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, said Saturday that she could say a few words but wasn’t responding to questions.

The actress fell in her bedroom in Beverly Hills as she went to pick up a phone call. She hurt her hip and it is suspected that she had a concussion.

Gabor wasn’t speaking and didn’t seem to be aware of her surroundings when she came to following her hip operation, behavior that had doctors concerned.   

 

 

 

How A Drowning Really Looks, Not The False Images Of TV And Film

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Posted on 22nd July 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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As a brain injury attorney, I know that when a person or child survives after almost drowning it isn’t always a happy ending.

Deprived of oxygen for too long a time, would-be drowning victims can suffer severe brain damage.  The way to stop that tragic scenario is to rescue a swimmer as quickly as possible, before they become unconscious as they struggle to breathe.

That’s why this Yahoo article, headlined ”Drowning Looks Different Than You Think,” on misconceptions about drowning is such an important read. It’s particularly for crucial for parents, since drowning is the No. 1 cause of injury death for kids aged one to four. 

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/drowning-looks-different-than-you-think-2010225/

In the movies and on TV, drowning victims scream for help and thrash around in the water. They’re not hard to miss. But the reality is quite different.

The story quotes an article written by a Ph.D.,  Francesco Pia, about the Instinctive Drowning Response. He says that when someone is drowning they can’t call for help. That’s because before you can speak, you must be breathing. So when your mouth is bobbing up and down as you try to catch a breath, you can’t yell for help. 

And drowning people can’t wave for assistance. They are too busy pressing their arms down laterally to try to buoy their bodies, so they get their heads out of the water and can catch a breath of air.  

“Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment,” the Yahoo story said.

There is also a list of signs of drowning to watch out for, which include: head tilted back with open mouth; hair over forehead or eyes; eyes glassy and unable to focus; eyes closed; body is vertical and upright in the water; person is not using their legs.    

It’s an important list to keep in mind, particularly in the summer.

U.S. Defense Department To Fund $17 Million Study Of Brain Injury Test

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Posted on 20th July 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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After years of working with traumatic brain injury cases, I’ve often talked about the need for a test that will accurately diagnose concussions and other various levels of brain damage. Now it looks like one may actually be coming in the near future.

The Wall Street Journal Tuesday wrote about the new test, saying, “researchers are close to identifying so-called biomarkers that may soon make it possible to pinpoint brain injuries with a simple blood test.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704720004575377082786936708.html

The U.S. Department of Defense is expected to ante up $17 million to pay for a study of brain-injury biomarkers in over 1,000 patients at 20 hospitals, according to The Journal. This expansive study will kick off next year and continue for 18 months. 

The test aims to find out if biomarkers, the proteins that an injured brain produces, can be used to reliably gauge if there has been brain injury, how bad it is and how it should be treated.

Whether or not a person has really sustained brain injury will impact what The Journal estimated are 1.4 million “athletes, car-crash victims and others in the U.S. who are treated for brain injuries in emergency rooms each year.”

Failing to diagnose a brain injury can have fatal consequences. Take the case of actress of Natasha Richardson, who died last year after a skiing accident because no one understood the seriousness of her injuries.

Diagnosing a brain injury now is hit or miss. It’s done by checking a patient’s heart rate and blood pressure, and then asking about their memory and consciousness. You check a patient’s pupils to see how they react to bright light. You  check if a patient still has a sense of smell.

We need more accurates tests than those, and hopefully this major defense department study will the answer in biomarkers. 

     

 

Here’s Wishing 8-Year-Old New Jersey Boxer Would Stay Out Of The Ring

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Posted on 16th July 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Young boxer Vito Mielnicki, eight year old, is a contender.

The boy from Roseland, N.J., hopes to compete for the Junior Golden Gloves title later this month in Las Vegas. Vito, who weighs 57 pounds, was profiled on the front page of  The Star-Ledger of Newark last Saturday. I cringed when I read that article. 

 http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/07/8-year-old_roseland_boy_domina.html

In terms of brain injury, boxing is dangerous enough for adults. But it’s especially risk-ridden for young kids like Vito, whose brains are still being developed.

The Ledger did talk to a surgeon, Dr. Vincent McInerney at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson, about the risks of boys Vito’s age boxing. He pointed out that boys that age have heads that are out of proportion to the rest of their bodies. 

“Their neck muscles are weaker, so they are more susceptible to head injuries, and children also don’t recover as quickly as adults,” the physician told The Ledger.

In defense of the sport, it was noted that the headgear and padded gloves used in youth boxing today help ward off brain injury. And Vito’s football coach, Bob Burke, said that the safety measures at bouts now are much stricter than they used to be.

For example, matches are only three one-minute rounds. And if a kid gets hit hard, a referee will stop the bout, count to eight and then call for a ringside physician if the child still isn’t OK. 

For me, these boxing precautions will never be safe enough.  And Vito is engaging in not just one but two sports — football and boxing — that are known to result in concussions.

My heart went out to Vito’s mother, who seems to be the only wise one in the Mielnicki household. She told The Ledger that she gets so nervous when Vito fights that she closes her eyes.

“If it was my choice, I wouldn’t have put him in it because, of course, every mother gets nervous,” she told the paper. “It’s a very contact sport, one-on-one, but my son loves it.”  

When asked what he likes about boxing Vito said he enjoys training, he likes winning and he likes getting trophies.

 That’s all well and good, Vito, but it’s not worth the risks you are taking of potentially damaging your brain for life. 

 

 

 

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