NCAA, Concussions, CTE and Brain Wounds: RELEVANCE FOR VETERANS

THE BIG PICTURE: In less than a year, two separate juries — one in South Carolina, one in Texas — have now handed the NCAA massive CTE verdicts totaling $158 million combined. With the NCAA calling CTE “hypothetical” even as juries deliver nine-figure verdicts, the floodgates for similar lawsuits appear to be opening wide.

Veterans and their families with undiagnosed or misdiagnosed Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) are in a similar boat as NCAA athletes suffering debilitating concussion symptoms. Two recent legal cases involving former college football players diagnosed with dementia and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) display close parallels.

The first case, Geathers v. NCAA, involved Robert Geathers, a defensive end for the South Carolina State Bulldogs from 1977 to 1980. In 2017, almost forty years after his college athletic career, Geathers was diagnosed with dementia, while also presenting signs consistent with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a debilitating brain condition linked to repeated head injury. Physicians who testified at the trial said Geathers displays symptoms of CTE, which currently can only be diagnosed posthumously.

In April 2019, Geathers and his wife Debra filed a negligence and fraud action against the NCAA. The central argument alleged that the NCAA had been aware of the potential dangers of concussions and CTE since as early as the 1930s, pointing to a 1933 NCAA medical handbook which included references to “concussion management plans.” Their attorney, prominent civil rights lawyer Bakari Sellers, told jurors: “All of the information they knew, they withheld. Their job was to keep the boys safe.” He also argued the NCAA particularly failed to warn coaches and players at HBCUs like South Carolina State.

A South Carolina jury found the NCAA negligent for failing to warn Geathers about the long-term risks of concussions. The jury awarded $10 million to Robert Geathers and $8 million to his wife, Debra, for loss of consortium — a total of $18 million — following the civil trial in Orangeburg County. The jury believed the NCAA had actionable knowledge of concussion risks but failed to act.

The jury specifically determined that the NCAA:

• Unreasonably increased the risk of harm of head impacts to Robert Geathers beyond the risks inherent to playing football
• Voluntarily assumed duties to protect his health and safety, and negligently breached those duties

NCAA spokesperson Greg Johnson said the organization disagreed with the verdict and was “prepared to pursue our rights on post-trial motions and on appeal, if necessary.” Johnson pointed out that “the NCAA has prevailed in every other jury trial around the country on these issues.”

The NCAA’s trial attorney argued that Robert Geathers has several other health conditions that could explain his dementia-like symptoms, and that the NCAA’s football rules committee is composed of representatives of member schools who could propose rule changes. “There’s going to be head-hits. That’s inherent to the game. You can’t take head-hits out of football,” he said in closing arguments.

The second case was brought in Dallas, Texas by the family of 1950s SMU football player J.T. Davis. In the case of Davis v. NCAA, Cause No. CC-20-01121-D, a jury last month returned a verdict of $30 million dollars compensatory damages, and $110 million punitive damages. The jury agreed with the plaintiff’s family that NCAA leadership was aware of the long-term consequences of repetitive head trauma in football, including CTE, and did not warn players such as Mr. Davis. Plaintiffs further alleged that the NCAA did not follow a provision of its own constitution requiring it to study sports. Trial exhibits introduced by plaintiffs included internal NCAA documents which, plaintiffs argued, indicated that NCAA medical experts had information dating back to the 1930s regarding progressive neurodegenerative disease in college football players.

At trial, the NCAA argued that there is a lack of evidence that CTE is caused by repeated head hits and disputed that CTE causes symptoms. The NCAA stated that CTE is a “hypothetical” disease, despite incriminating internal communications that addressed CTE-related clinical symptoms and the risk profile of college football players.

Net net, for the first and second times, juries no longer bought the NCAA’ decades long assertions that they didn’t know, there was no evidence, and it wasn’t their fault that players were being negatively impacted from their football years. Important to note that their position has been eroding over the years as Dr. Ann McKee’s science on CTE in Boston shows the results of examining the brains of 202 former American football players: 99% of NFL players examined had CTE, 91% of college players, and 21% of high school players.

Legal quibbling is the last redoubt of institutions and corporations about to smell the roses and acknowledge what the common man and science have already proved.

The VA and DoD have similar dilemmas. They have sponsored research, developed elaborate data bases and longitudinal studies, invested heavily in facilities, staffing, firing and hiring, and continuing research into BLAST and effects of firing personal weapons. Unfortunately, nowhere in any of the studies about treatment do the VA or DoD consult their own textbook of “old” Common Practice Guidelines. The figure below tells them a way forward in their continuing search for better and more effective treatments to help heal brain wounds.

What the “Algorithm for the evaluation of neurological abnormalities in a blast casualty” spells out clearly as the “Definitive Therapy” for BLAST injury is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.

Now one could argue that this chart is outdated, or that BLAST injury is not the same as a concussion, or that we now know what they didn’t at the time. That is demonstrably true. But what we have learned in the last decades is that BLAST is so much worse than what we knew at the time, and that it strikes service members in a vast array of ways relative to particular lines of work. Artillery, mortars, EOD, jet pilots, heavy weapons, SOF, breechers, shoot room instructors. The list continues to grow.

Thus, the negligence in NOT using HBOT, a known and effective intervention for BLAST injury, is causing more and more victims to go without known treatments, thus prolonging brain and personal deterioration.

Given all that, let’s connect some dots:

• BLAST and one-time and/or constant banging of the head can lead to brain wounds.
• Brain-wounding has been shown to lead, in some cases, to CTE.
• Painful and debilitating symptoms accompany brain wounds and have been observed in patients later found to have CTE.
• Not all brain wounds lead to CTE, but some significant percentage of those studied do have CTE.
• The NCAA and the NFL and many other leagues worldwide continue to contest the connection of brain wounds to CTE and other neurological and behavioral and psychological deterioration in players.
• The VA and DoD have a suicide epidemic that is increasingly tied to actions taken — and not taken — by their own medical personnel.
• Scientific, peer-reviewed research connects BLAST damage to brain wounds, TBI, PTSD, and CTE.
• Institutional medicine denies “proof” that Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy helps heal brain wounds, diminishes suicidal ideation, and improves Quality of Life in service members and other victims of brain wounding from Concussion/TBI/PTSD/BLAST.
• Decades-old published medical advice to the NCAA and from Army Medicine argue for enhanced care for concussed patients, and in the case of Army Medicine, declare the definitive treatment for BLAST injury is HBOT.
• No military or institutional medical organization uses HBOT for brain wounds, and even goes to lengths to denigrate the science and warn against the risk of HBOT, despite scientific, clinical, anecdotal and evidence-based practice to the contrary.
• The NCAA, DoD, and the NFL have teamed up to study all of this, and we can count on published research that will advance what we know about damage, and causes, and symptom reduction. But we can predict that the path they are on will do little to advance brain wound healing.
• The research into psychedelics and other alternative therapies should continue in the hope that they will prove effective at brain wound healing but that future is in the future following great cost, multiple setbacks, and controversy about the drugging of America.
• HBOT is available today. 14 states have legislated its use. 12,500 successes and restored Quality of Life with Veterans suffering brain wounds in over 180 clinics nationwide.

Message to the NCAA, the NFL, all professional sports teams and moms and dads. Start using and studying the effects of HBOT on brain wounds. Enough research exists already that proves HBOT is safe and effective. Notice the sequence: TreatNOW while everything else continues.

NOTE for those concerned with TOXIC EXPOSURE:

Linda Hersey of Stars and Stripes brings mixed news for Veterans suffering from toxic exposures. The bad news is that, finally, the VA recognizes that toxic exposures lead to increased suicide risk, posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD], depression, and alcohol use disorder.

The study, “Deployment-related toxic exposures, mental health problems, and suicide outcomes among Gulf War era U.S. veterans,” looked at the long-term mental health of veterans who reported exposures in the following categories: chemical/biological weapons, anthrax vaccine, Agent Orange (herbicides), solvents/fuels, petroleum combustion products, lead, other metals, pesticides and open-air burn pits.

The VA could help itself by starting to use Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy as part of their protocol for all of the above, as the TreatNOW Coalition has been doing successfully for over 15 years.

Also, recall it took the VA nearly 30 years to formally recognize that Gulf War Illness was real, so we can be thankful that they’ve moved so quickly; only 26 years to pin down links between toxic inhalation and a plethora of mental and physical health diseases.

Our knowledge of brain wounds and how to heal them has “exploded” in the last decade. The medical universe is mired in old notions about the brain and how to heal brain wounds. We can help in their education by allowing and funding State hospitals and clinics to use HBOT to heal TBI/PTSD while Congress and the VA and DoD catch up.

HBOT Heals Brains, Stops Suicides, Restores Lives. TreatNOW

Information provided by TreatNOW.org does not constitute a medical recommendation. It is intended for informational purposes only, and no claims, either real or implied, are being made.