Pittsburgh Steelers Fans Welcome Back Ben Roethlisberger With Cheers, Not Jeers

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Posted on 1st August 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Pittsburgh Steelers fans are either very forgiving, have short memories or approve of taking advantage of young drunk women in the bathrooms of bars.

In any event, the fans welcomed shamed quarterback Ben Roethlisberger –  some even seeking his autograph – back to team practice with cheers and open arms Saturday, according to The New York Times.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/sports/football/01steelers.html?ref=sports

An apparently grateful, or relieved, Roethlisberger didn’t give fans the shirt off his back, but he did give them the shoes off his feet. Literally. That anecdote is in the first paragraph of  The Times’ story, which is headlined “For Roethlisberger, Feelings of Anxiety Fade With The Sound of Cheers.”

Roethlisberger’s practice at camp Saturday was essentially his first public appearance since the quarterback was suspended for six games. He got that suspension after being accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a Georgia bar in March.  He was not criminally charged in that incident, but he faces a lawsuit from a woman who alleges he raped her in Lake Tahoe, Nev.

I believe, and have blogged here on this topic, that Roethlisberger’s behavior changed for the worse as a result of his past brain injuries, which included brain trauma he sustained in a motorcycle accident where he wasn’t wearing a helmet, to the several concussions he sustained while playing for the NFL. 

The Times esimated that 10,000 fans showed up at St. Vincent College, where the Steelers train, and they roared when Roethlisberger came out onto the field.

Instead of jeers, one many yelled out to Roethlisbeger, “You’re the man,” The Times reported.

After the practice Roethlisberger told The Times, “It was good to be out here. I walked out, and they cheered pretty loud. It was neat to hear everybody cheering and seeing my jersey (on fans).”   

Some of the fans wearing Roethlisberger’s jersey were women, old and young alike.

The quarterback, in addition to his supension, also had to undergo a behavorial evaluaton. His team mates say that he’s acting more “personable.” The question is whether this is an act, or a real change in Roethlisberger.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will visit the Steelers practice as part of his training-camp  tour, , and The Times says the scuttlebutt is that Goodell may cut the quartereback’s suspension to only four games instead of six. 

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.

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. 

 

 

 

Alcohol And Boating Don’t Mix: Crash In New York Harbor Kills Man Set To Wed, Injures Two Others

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Posted on 5th July 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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It’s the tail end of the July Fourth weekend,  and how did people celebrate our nation’s birth? Some of them partied, drank and drove — even if they know they shouldn’t. 

In the summer, there’s a new twist on that scenario: People go out on their boats, have a cocktail or beer while enjoying the ocean or a lake, and operate those floating vehicles while intoxicated. I guess they don’t view getting behind the wheel of a boat as “driving.”

That kind of attitude left one young man, set to be married in August, dead on Friday. His fiancee, Sissy Chacko. 27, is so distraught she can’t believe he’s gone. And the tragedy may be compounded, as I’ll explain in a bit, for the two other men who sustained “minor injuries” in the crash.  

Out in New York harbor not far from the Statue of Liberty, a 30-foot ProLine boat struck a 17-foot Bayliner, obviously a much smaller vessel. The Bayliner was split in half in the accident, and its three passengers were taken to Jersey City Medical Center. http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/07/two_boats_collide_near_statue.html

Jijo Puthuvamkunnath, 30, died. He was set to be wed Aug. 28. The man who was piloting the ProLine, Richard Aquilone, 39, was slapped with charges of vehicular manslaughter and operating a vessel while intoxicated.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/nj_man_facing_charged_in_statue_v2sbj8Cxyqo7zyVDEd52uM

That won’t bring his victim back to life, but Aquilone is at least remorseful. At his arraignment, according to The New York Daily News, Aquilone apologized to Puthuvamkunnath’s family.

What has me worried is actually the other two men who were in the boat with Puthuvamkunnath. 

The New York Post Saturday quoted an eyewitness, named Angel Rivera, who saw tho two injured men before they were taken to the hospital.  

“One guy was on a stretcher, unconcious. He was bleeding through his nose, and his feet were pale,” Rivera told the tabloid. ”The other guy must have been tossed around in the boat, because he had scrapes all over his face. When he went into the ambulance, he kept looking in the mirror at his face in shock.” 

In the online verson of the Post’s story, the quote about one man being unconscious is gone. There was no correction on the story, but maybe it was cut for space. The online story just says that both the men were in stable condition with head and knee cuts.    

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/deadly_boat_ram_at_lady_liberty_zaZvGYCd0nFS3mi2xcmQNK

 None of the other print stories I saw mentioned that one of the accident victims had been knocked unconscious by the sea wreck.

And in the press reports today, which included interviews with Puthuvamkunnath’s devastated family, the injuries of the two other men are played down. The Post wrote Sunday that they sustained minor injuries. http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/fiancee_agony_mb2Y9MqicxymPGBtD3WR2I

 We hope that physicians do not treat the injury of the young man who apparently was unconcious as “minor,” and that he is properly treated for his potential brain injury from the crash.                                                                                                               

That would just add to the tragedy of the horrible accident. 

And here’s my final comment. To top it all off, and demonstrating the height of irresponsibility, Aquilone had his wife and their three small children with him on the boat that he was piloting while drunk. How could anyone in their right mind endanger their entire family like that? 

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