New NFL Concussion Doctors Sacked By Congressional Committee

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Posted on 25th May 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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By all the press accounts, it looks like the new co-chairmen of the NFL’s committee on head injuries fumbled their first appearance at a Congressional hearing on football and concussions Monday. 

One would have thought that Dr. Richard Ellenbogen and Dr. Hunt Batjer would have been fully prepared for a grilling by the House Judiciary Committee at the forum in Manhattan. Instead, they were skewered by both Congressmen Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., and Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y. 

Sanchez accused the two co-chairmen of sounding “like the same old NFL,” according to The New York Times Tuesday. And that remark wasn’t meant as a compliment.  

 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/sports/football/25concussion.html?ref=sports

 And Weiner was obviously annoyed when he threw out a question to the panel that was testifying, asking if someone could talk about helmet technology. But no one, not even Ellenbogen or Batjer, volunteered a word. Needless to say, that didn’t go over big with Weiner.

Ellenbogen and Batjer are meant to represent the NFL’s fresh start, and newly aggressive tack, in terms of dealing with player concussions. In March they replaced Dr. Ira Casson and Dr. David Viano on what the NFL is now calling its Head, Neck and Spine Committee. 

Casson and Viano stepped down from the committee last November, just a month after congressional hearings blasted the alleged inaccuracy  of research that the league had commissioned, as well as the NFL’s overall concussion policy.

At Monday’s hearing, according to the Associated Press, Weiner was not happy to learn that Casson and Viano were still involved in league research on helmets.

“Two so discredited people were part of these studies,” Weiner said,  his voice rising, said AP. “You have years of an infected system that needs to be cleaned up. The idea is to prevent injuries in the first place and there is a blind spot if you are not involved with helmets.” http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jKImpZ7t9A0jLJ6fQdP5cH2GRM2gD9FTFI981

 During his testimony, Ellenbogen noted that NFL Commissoner Roger Goodell last week sent letters to 44 governors askng them to pass bills based on Washington State’s so-called Lystedt laws in their states. The concussion-protection law is named after a high school football player who went back to the field after sustaining a concussion, and then developed life-threatening problems.

During Monday’s session Sánchez remained concerned about retired players, with studies finding that they are  reporting dementia and other cognitive disease at a greater rate than the national population. She didn’t understand why the NFL’s concussion committee member could use data collected by Casson that others had  discredited

 Ellenbogen maintained that the league is committed to studying the cognitive woes of retired players and has a new NFL injury database.

As The Times noted, Monday’s testimony by Tammy Plevretes seemed to have a strong impact on Weiner. Plevretes’s son  Preston was badly injured while playing football for La Salle University in 2005. The Plevretes family alleged that the school didn’t have a proper policy for dealing with concussions, and the family eventually settled a lawsuit against La Salle last fall for $7.5 million, according to The Times.

Preston, who was in the audience during Monday’s hearing, suffered permanent brain injuries and now can barely talk  or walk.

“This is not a broken arm or a broken leg,” The Times quoted Tammy Plevretes, in tears, saying at the hearing. “This is a broken life.”

 

Attorney Gordon Johnson
Past Chair Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association of Justice
g@gordonjohnson.com :: 800-992-9447 :: Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.

NFL Commissioner Goodell Asks 44 Governors To Pass Youth Concussion Laws

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Posted on 24th May 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell last week sent letters to the governors of 44 states imploring them to pass laws, like the one in Washington state, that protect young student athletes who suffer concussions. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hvOCfeO2dM98z2jlCj7eqv0lDfUwD9FSM7OO2

Goodell’s letter, according to the Associated Press, was expected to be mentioned by Dr. Richard Ellenborgen during a concussion forum that Congressman John Conyers, D-Mich., is holding today, Monday, in Manhattan.

The NFL put its head in the sand for many years in terms of acknowledging the long-term impact of brain injury. Now, the league and Goodell are actively promoting the institution of proper guidelines for those who suffer concussions while playing sports.

“The NFL has taken a much more aggressive approach in recent years in identifying and treating concussions among our own players,” Goodell wrote in his letter. “We have implemented an awareness campaign to make certain that everyone in the league, including players and coaches, is better equipped to identify concussion symptoms. Our primary rule is: The medical staffs determine when a player is ready to return, not the coach nor the player himself.”

http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d81847223&template=with-video-with-comments&confirm=true

The NFL is urging the 44 states without student-brain injury guides to use the Lystedt Law in Washington as their model. That legislation is named after Zackery Lystedt, a high school player who went back into a game in 2008 after sustaineing a concussion, and then had to be hospitalized and nearly died.   

Dr. Ellenborgen was Lystedt’s surgeon. The NFL’s Head, Neck and Spine Committee is chaired by Dr. Ellenborgen and Dr. Hunt Batjer, who testified at today’s hearing.

 ”The Center for Disease Control estimates that there may be as many as 3.8 million sports and recreation-related concussions in the United States each year,” Goodell wrote in his letter. “These injuries are sustained by both boys and girls in numerous contact sports.”

He continued, “Given our experience at the professional level, we believe a similar approach is appropriate when dealing with concussions in all youth sports. That is why the NFL and its clubs urge you to support legislation that would better protect your state’s young athletes by mandating a more formal and aggressive approach to treatment of concussions.”

The Lystedt law’s has three major components: Athletes, parents and coaches must be educated about the dangers of concussions each year; if a young athlete is suspected of having a concussion, he/she must be removed from a game or practice and not be permitted to return to play; and a licensed health care professional must clear the young athlete to return to play in the subsequent days or weeks.

“We would urge that similar legislation be adopted in your state,” Goodell wrote. “We believe that sports and political leaders can help raise awareness of these dangerous injuries and better ensure that they are treated in the proper and most effective way. Young athletes, as well as parents, coaches and school officials in your state, will thank you for taking a stand on this important issue.”

 

 

 

Attorney Gordon Johnson
Past Chair Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association of Justice
g@gordonjohnson.com :: 800-992-9447 :: Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.

Female High School Athletes Describe The Lingering After Effects Of Their Concussions

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Posted on 22nd May 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Female high school athletes last week told a congressional committee about how the concussions they sustained playing sports changed their lives for the worse, as they continue to struggle to do tasks as simple as basic arithmetic.  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/sports/football/21concussions.html

The House Committee on Education and Labor conducted a two-hour hearing Thursday in Washington that put the spotlight on how brain injury impacts the scholastic performance of student athletes, since these youths spend most of their recovery time in the classroom, not the field. The sessions also focused on female jocks.

Thursday’s testimony, particularly by 14-year-old Sarah Rainey, provided powerful evidence about why state laws protecting student athletes who suffer brain injury are necessary.  A soccer player at West Potomac High School, Rainey sustained a concussion five weeks ago, according to The New York Times.

Rainey was unconscious for several seconds after being hit in that game, yet after just taking a break for a sip of water  went right back in to play. Nothing could have been worse for a brain injury victim. She should have stayed off  the field, as evidenced by the fact that she doesn’t recall playing the rest of the game, which went into two overtimes. Such amnesia is a sign of brain injury.    

Since then, Rainey testified that she now needs a calculator to do easy math, and that her head is constantly “pounding,” as if she was wearing a compression headband.

Another committee witness and ex-high school brain-injured athlete, 19-year-old Michelle Pelton of Massachusetts, described how she suffered from pain, depression, memory loss and lack of concentration — again, all classic symptoms of concussion. 

According to The Times, Pelton described her everyday life  “as a battle,” adding, ”If  I can prevent even one person from experiencing that happened to me, then my trip here was a huge success.”

There have already been three hearings conducted by the House Judiciary Committee on concussions, which basically exposed how the National Football League’s policies were shamefully inadequate. Putting the national press’s focus on the issue helped prompt Legislatures across the country to pass laws to protect student athletes suspected of having brain injury.

The chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, George Miller, D-Calif., also had ordered a Government Accountability Office  report on sports concussions and youth athletes. It contains information and comparisions on the various state laws regarding student sports injuries.  

Teachers need to be educated about and sensitive to the problems that athletes with concussions have in class, and give them some leeway, according to testimony at the hearing from Dr. Gerry Gioia, chief of pediatric neuropsychology ay Children’s National Medical Center in Washington.

Attorney Gordon Johnson
Past Chair Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association of Justice
g@gordonjohnson.com :: 800-992-9447 :: Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.

House Committee Sets May 24 New York Hearing On Concussions

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Posted on 16th May 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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The House Judiciary Committee has set a May 24 hearing in New York to get information on concussions and other brain trauma in football. http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/house-committee-to-discuss-concussions-in-new-york-forum/

 So far the committee has held three events on brain injury and the National Football League, kicking off with an Oct. 28 hearing that focused on the league’s mishandling of concussions. After that session in Washington, D.C., the NFL revamped some of its policies and two top officials resigned from its concussion committee.

 The New York event will be held at the U.S. Custom House in Manhattan.

 The gathering is being conducted not far from the congressional district of Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner, who blasted the NFL at the Oct. 28 hearing, charging that the league’s research on the long-term impact of concussions on retired players “is stacked.”

 

Attorney Gordon Johnson
Past Chair Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association of Justice
g@gordonjohnson.com :: 800-992-9447 :: Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.