Doctors: Ex-WVU star Henry had chronic brain injury
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Cincinnati Bengals football player Chris Henry suffered from a chronic brain injury that may have influenced his mental state and behavior before he died last winter, West Virginia University researchers say.
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By Vicki Smith
The Associated Press
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Cincinnati Bengals football player Chris Henry suffered from a chronic brain injury that may have influenced his mental state and behavior before he died last winter, West Virginia University researchers say.
The doctors had done a microscopic tissue analysis of Henry's brain that showed he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Neurosurgeon Julian Bailes and California medical examiner Bennet Omalu, co-directors of the Brain Injury Research Institute at WVU, were to publicly announce their findings Monday afternoon alongside Henry's mother, Carolyn Lee Henry.
Her 26-year-old son died in December, a day after he came out of the back of a pickup truck his fiancée was driving near their home in Charlotte, N.C. It's unclear whether Henry, a former WVU star, jumped or fell. Toxicology tests found no alcohol in his system, and an autopsy concluded he died of numerous head injuries, including a fractured skull and brain hemorrhaging.
But Bailes, team doctor for the Mountaineers and a former Pittsburgh Steelers physician, said it's easy to distinguish those acute traumatic injuries from the underlying condition he and Omaha found when staining tiny slices of Henry's brain.
Bailes and fellow researchers believe chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, is caused by multiple head impacts, regardless of whether those blows result in a concussion diagnosis. A number of studies, including one commissioned by the NFL, have found that retired professional football players may have a higher rate than normal of Alzheimer's disease and other memory problems.
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Doctors: Ex-WVU star Henry had chronic brain injury
By Vicki Smith
The Associated Press
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Cincinnati Bengals football player Chris Henry suffered from a chronic brain injury that may have influenced his mental state and behavior before he died last winter, West Virginia University researchers say.
The doctors had done a microscopic tissue analysis of Henry's brain that showed he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Neurosurgeon Julian Bailes and California medical examiner Bennet Omalu, co-directors of the Brain Injury Research Institute at WVU, were to publicly announce their findings Monday afternoon alongside Henry's mother, Carolyn Lee Henry.
Her 26-year-old son died in December, a day after he came out of the back of a pickup truck his fiancée was driving near their home in Charlotte, N.C. It's unclear whether Henry, a former WVU star, jumped or fell. Toxicology tests found no alcohol in his system, and an autopsy concluded he died of numerous head injuries, including a fractured skull and brain hemorrhaging.
But Bailes, team doctor for the Mountaineers and a former Pittsburgh Steelers physician, said it's easy to distinguish those acute traumatic injuries from the underlying condition he and Omaha found when staining tiny slices of Henry's brain.
Bailes and fellow researchers believe chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, is caused by multiple head impacts, regardless of whether those blows result in a concussion diagnosis. A number of studies, including one commissioned by the NFL, have found that retired professional football players may have a higher rate than normal of Alzheimer's disease and other memory problems.
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By Vicki Smith
The Associated Press
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Cincinnati Bengals football player Chris Henry suffered from a chronic brain injury that may have influenced his mental state and behavior before he died last winter, West Virginia University researchers say.
The doctors had done a microscopic tissue analysis of Henry's brain that showed he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Neurosurgeon Julian Bailes and California medical examiner Bennet Omalu, co-directors of the Brain Injury Research Institute at WVU, were to publicly announce their findings Monday afternoon alongside Henry's mother, Carolyn Lee Henry.
Her 26-year-old son died in December, a day after he came out of the back of a pickup truck his fiancée was driving near their home in Charlotte, N.C. It's unclear whether Henry, a former WVU star, jumped or fell. Toxicology tests found no alcohol in his system, and an autopsy concluded he died of numerous head injuries, including a fractured skull and brain hemorrhaging.
But Bailes, team doctor for the Mountaineers and a former Pittsburgh Steelers physician, said it's easy to distinguish those acute traumatic injuries from the underlying condition he and Omaha found when staining tiny slices of Henry's brain.
Bailes and fellow researchers believe chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, is caused by multiple head impacts, regardless of whether those blows result in a concussion diagnosis. A number of studies, including one commissioned by the NFL, have found that retired professional football players may have a higher rate than normal of Alzheimer's disease and other memory problems.
What's interesting, Bailes said, is that Henry was only 26, and neither NFL nor WVU records show he was diagnosed with a concussion during his playing career.
CTE carries specific neurobehavioral symptoms, Bailies said -- typically, failure at personal and business relationships, use of drugs and alcohol, depression and suicide.
Henry's personal struggles were well documented. Although he was a vital part of the Bengals' offense as a rookie, he ended that season with an arrest for marijuana possession. After a playoff loss to Pittsburgh, he was arrested on a gun charge in Florida.
Henry was suspended for half a season in 2007 as the league cracked down on personal conduct. When he was arrested a fifth time, a judge called Henry "a one-man crime wave'' and the Bengals released him.
But Henry got a second chance and played 12 games in the 2008 season.
Teammates said they'd noticed a change his demeanor, and at the start of the 2009 season, he described himself as "blessed'' and said he was turning his life around.
Bailes said he and Omalu have now analyzed the brains of 27 modern athletes, and the majority showed evidence of CTE. But it's found in only a small number of players, he said.
"I think football is a great sport, and we want to make it safer,'' Bailes said, "but we have to continue to move forward with changes made recently and take the head impacts out of the sport as much as possible.''
Article Preview
This article is available only to our premium digital content subscribers.
Doctors: Ex-WVU star Henry had chronic brain injury
By Vicki Smith
The Associated Press
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Cincinnati Bengals football player Chris Henry suffered from a chronic brain injury that may have influenced his mental state and behavior before he died last winter, West Virginia University researchers say.
The doctors had done a microscopic tissue analysis of Henry's brain that showed he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Neurosurgeon Julian Bailes and California medical examiner Bennet Omalu, co-directors of the Brain Injury Research Institute at WVU, were to publicly announce their findings Monday afternoon alongside Henry's mother, Carolyn Lee Henry.
Her 26-year-old son died in December, a day after he came out of the back of a pickup truck his fiancée was driving near their home in Charlotte, N.C. It's unclear whether Henry, a former WVU star, jumped or fell. Toxicology tests found no alcohol in his system, and an autopsy concluded he died of numerous head injuries, including a fractured skull and brain hemorrhaging.
But Bailes, team doctor for the Mountaineers and a former Pittsburgh Steelers physician, said it's easy to distinguish those acute traumatic injuries from the underlying condition he and Omaha found when staining tiny slices of Henry's brain.
Bailes and fellow researchers believe chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, is caused by multiple head impacts, regardless of whether those blows result in a concussion diagnosis. A number of studies, including one commissioned by the NFL, have found that retired professional football players may have a higher rate than normal of Alzheimer's disease and other memory problems.
