Scans of Heather Anderson’s brain revealed a horrific condition. The football player committed suicide at the age of 28.
Heather Anderson was found dead in an Australian Defense Forces barracks last November. The soldier and former football player committed suicide when she was only 28. As has now become known, the Australian suffered from a severe degenerative brain disease called CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). This makes her the first female athlete in the world to be diagnosed with this disease.
Anderson’s parents donated their daughter’s brain to a CTE research foundation after the autopsy. The scientists at the Australian Sports Brain Bank (ASBB) wrote in an article in the specialist journal “The Conversation” about the results of their investigations: “She is the first athlete ever to be diagnosed with CTE. But she will certainly not be the last”.
It is a shocking diagnosis, because in Anderson’s native Australia alone around one million girls and women were involved in a contact sport in 2022. Two of these contact sports, rugby and Australian rules football, are particularly popular in the country. And with it the risk of suffering a serious head injury is particularly high. Any concussion is equivalent to a minor traumatic brain injury. With every trauma, the risk of developing CTE increases.
In the advanced stage only a porous sponge
Anderson has played football since she was five. Overall, her successful career spanned 18 years, during which she is believed to have sustained a number of headbutts. She last played in the Australian Women’s Football League (AFLW) as a defender for the Adelaide Crows team.
Headbutts, and thus concussions of the brain, are among the main triggers of CTE. The disease is insidious. Its symptoms include memory problems, coordination problems, confusion, depression, dementia and increasingly aggressive behavior. Those affected experience the disease as a kind of identity dissolution.
That’s not surprising. In CTE, the brain substance gradually dissolves, and with it the cognitive abilities. At an advanced stage, the brain is just a porous sponge.
The number of concussions is increasing
One sport in which CTE has been identified in a number of players is American football. Boston University researchers found 345 instances of CTE in the brains of 376 gamers they were able to examine. The sport is considered extremely tough. Among the players involved, but also among the coaches, the hardness against oneself and one’s own body still counts.
The US league NFL already has a so-called in 2009 concussion protocol introduced. It mandates that players who suffer a headbutt during a match must be immediately medically evaluated and removed from the game if there are signs of a concussion. It is unclear to what extent the clubs also comply with this protocol in training.
In the past season alone, the number of diagnosed concussions in the NFL has increased by 18 percent, but experts estimate the number of unreported cases to be much higher. Despite the knowledge about CTE, the sport is not becoming any less dangerous. In other sports such as football, boxing, wrestling or martial arts, there are some protective measures, but their implementation varies greatly.
The world governing body rugby, on the other hand, does not even require its players to wear head protection, as there is no evidence that helmets protect against concussions. Instead, reference is made to the correct use of playing technique.
Anderson knew about the consequences of the disease
There are enough prominent examples of athletes affected by CTE. Pittsburgh Steelers forward Terry Long killed himself in 2005 by drinking antifreeze. Or Andre Waters. He was considered one of the toughest “hitters” in the NFL, i.e. players who ram body (and often head) first into the opponent. He put a bullet in his head in 2006 because he was plagued by CTE. Dave Duerson shot himself in 2011. An autopsy on his body revealed advanced brain degeneration: CTE. The list could go on.
2023-07-06 02:25:36
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