Category: Brain Injury

Many people associate football with concussions, and how couldn’t they? The entire game is focused on tackling players. While the N.F.L.’s research that downplays the occurrence of concussions has earned plenty of scrutiny, people are at least aware of the connection between this sport and head injuries.

The impact from tackling in football can cause concussions, but there are plenty of other sports and situations where one can get a traumatic brain injury. If you’ve been injured and have a concussion, a Louisville brain injury lawyer from Thomas Law Offices can help you get compensation for your injuries. We understand how severe brain injuries can affect you and your life. We’re ready to fight for your rights and get you a favorable settlement.

The brain is one of the most fragile areas of the body. Any injuries it sustains can lead to serious, lifelong complications. Extremely serious brain injuries, often referred to as traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), are usually caused by trauma that results in unconsciousness. There’s another type of brain injury that’s slightly less severe and therefore less obvious. This type of injury, despite being more minor, can still be dangerous. Its symptoms can take years to present themselves, but they are no less deadly or debilitating than TBI symptoms.

For the last 13 years, the National Football League has stood behind the league committee’s research papers that downplayed the news headlines claiming that a frightening number of players went into retirement early after experiencing concussions and other brain injuries like chronic traumatic encephalopathy—a type of degenerative brain disease. Despite physician criticism years after the research papers were published, the N.F.L. stood by the committee’s publications. Now, thanks to a major investigation launched by The New York Times, there’s new research suggesting that the papers were indeed heavily flawed—even more so than the critics thought years ago.

The American Association for Justice (AAJ) has released a report titled Concussions and the Courthouse that describes the dramatic and powerful effect the law has had on how coaches and administrators handle athletes with concussion injuries.  To accompany the report, AAJ is also launching the new interactive website http://concussion.justice.org/.  It has long been known through medical research that football players are at a very high risk of receiving a dangerous concussion injury, but this knowledge alone fueled little change in what was being done to protect athletes.  Recent lawsuits, though small in settlement, have had a massive impact on player safety and have greatly increased awareness of the athletes’ risk for concussion among parents, coaches, and school administrators.

Researchers at the Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University have recently released the results of a $1 million study, paid for by the NFL, conducted on the brains of deceased professional football players.  The study identified chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in 96 percent of NFL players’ brains examined, indicating that there is a link between football and long-term brain disease.  Overall, the study found CTE in the brains of 79 percent of the deceased football players tested, including those who played at only the high school or college level.

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a progressive, degenerative disease which currently can only be definitively diagnosed postmortem.  CTE occurs when an individual receives blows to the head over a period of time, causing progressive damage to the nerve cells in the brain.  The condition has serious side effects, including memory loss, impaired judgment, depression, and dementia.

The results of this study support the results of previous studies, stating that it is not the rare, violent head trauma that causes players to experience this kind of brain damage; rather it is the frequent, minor blows that have the long term effects.  The injuries that result in CTE cause abnormal accumulations of proteins in the brain, interfering in the cell-to-cell communication and altering the white matter of the brain.  The researchers found that 40 percent of the football players studied who had CTE were offensive or defensive linemen, a position that experiences collision and physical contact on every play.

Many NFL players have taken legal action against the league for injuries they experienced that have had long term health effects.  In April, the NFL reached a settlement of $1 billion to resolve these cases in a class action lawsuit involving the former players.  In response to the results of this recent study, the NFL released this statement, “We are dedicated to making football safer and continue to take steps to protect players, including rule changes, advanced sideline technology, and expanded medical resources.  We continue to make significant investments in independent research through our gifts to Boston University, the National Institutes of Health, and other efforts to accelerate the science and understanding of these issues.”

If you wish to learn more about the risks of developing chronic traumatic encephalopathy as a result of playing sports, such as football and soccer, contact the Louisville, Kentucky brain injury lawyers at Thomas Law Offices for more information.