California May Be Forum For Deciding Whether The NFL Can Be Held Liable For Retired Players Developing Alzheimer’s Disease

2 comments

Posted on 8th April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

, , , , , , , , , , ,

A case in California is shaping up as a test of whether the National Football League is liable for the dementia that is striking retired players who sustained head injuries during their careers.

 The details of the case are carefully spelled out in a lengthy Page One story in The New York Times by sports writer Alan Schwartz, whose aggressive coverage of the NFL-concussion issue has been submitted for a Pulitzer Prize. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/sports/football/06worker.html?ref=todayspaper

 The detailed story centers of the case of Ralph Wenzel, who was a NFL lineman from 1966 to 1973. He was diagnosed with dementia when he was 67.

 His wife, Dr. Eleanor Peretta, filed a workman’s compensation claim on her husband’s behalf in California. Apparently, retired pro athletes from across the country file claims in California for injuries they sustained decades ago.

 That’s because under California law, any pro athlete who played even one game in the state “is eligible to receive lifetime medical care for their injuries from the teams and their insurance carriers,” according to The Times.

 In fact, right now some 700 former NFL players have filed claims in California, and they can expect to get settlements of anywhere from $100,000 to $200,000. 

 Those lump sums have been for injuries such as injured shoulders and knees. But Wenzel’s case is significantly different, and could be precedent-setting. That’s because it is blaming Wenzel’s former employment as a football player for his devastating onset of dementia.

 The case could be worth over $1 million for Wenzel and his wife, and could also result in the NFL being held liable for similar awards from retired players who have developed Alzheimer’s disease, on the hook for $100 million or even more, according to The Times.

 The looming issue scared the Arena Football League, which just resumed operations, enough that it decided not to have a franchise in California. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/sports/football/06arena.html

 Schwartz has a follow-up story on the NFL-workman’s compensation issue Tuesday. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/sports/football/07bengals.html?hpw

In that piece, he describes how NFL teams now starting to contest the workman’s comp claims filed by former players in California. And some teams, to avoid the problem in the first place, are including clauses on their contracts that say players can only file for workman’s compensation in the state where their team plays.

For example, the Cincinnati Bengals now have a clause in player contracts that says they can only file for workman’s compensation in Ohio, according to The Times.

 

NFL, War and Brain Injury

0 comments

Posted on 15th May 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

, , , , , , , , , ,

My internet news today had an intersecting of two recurring themes in the brain injury world, with that of an unexpected death of a former NFL player. The first theme is the difficulties retired NFL players have with disability. The second theme the degree of depression found in post Iraq war veterans. What does the death of Curtis Whitley have to do with the other two themes? Perhaps nothing, but even if this case doesn’t, other similar cases could. For the full story on the death of Curtis Whitely, click here.

Anyone who works in the field of brain injury, has often turned the old cliché about mental illness “Its all in the head” on itself, because of course, anything to do with the brain, is in the head. But, the extent of the interplay between emotional problems and brain injury is never, and I repeat never, fully appreciated. As I sit here and write this, I can’t fully appreciate this interplay, because it involves the area of human emotions and function, that we are only scratching the surface in our capacity to understand and have no clue as to how to measure.

Brain injury deficits and emotional deficits are synergistic, meaning the whole of the problems when you combine these two, is greater than the sum of the parts. From a recent deposition I took of a defense neuropsychologist:
Q If I were going to use the term “synergistic” to apply to the cumulative effect of all of these multifactorial aspects of an outcome, is that a reasonable word to use to describe it.
A Can you define how you’re using synergistic?
Q Well, if synergistic means the total exceeds the sum of the parts, do you believe that post concussional deficits can be synergistic?
Q I’ll add to that. Do you believe that the cumulative disability from post-concussional deficits can be synergistic?
A I believe — I hope I’m answering this consistent with what you’re asking — but I believe that these factors can feed off of each other and result in a very complex, poor outcome.
With respect to Whitley, the 39 year old was found face down in a bathroom in Fort Stockton, Texas. The local sheriff said there was no indication of foul play, but the case is under investigation. That investigation will likely look at Whitley’s history of drug and/or alcohol abuse. What won’t be examined is how many concussions he had, how his dependencies on substances might have interplayed with those concussions and how his emotional vulnerabilities from the combination of the two contributed to the end of his NFL career and his premature death.

But perhaps, Iraq war veterans will have a better fate. A recent article in the Science Daily, promises more for them, and we will discuss such issues in our next blog. Click here for that story.