On Thursday, it was revealed that Aaron Hernandez, the New England Patriots star tight end, who was charged with murder, sent to prison, and then committed suicide, was suffering from a severe case of the brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopahty (CTE).
Now comes a report from The Atlantic that could’ve diagnosed his ailment earlier and maybe prevented his death. Sam Gandy, a neurologist and Alzheimer’s researcher at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, may have found a way to detect CTE in living patients’ brain scans.
Up until now, CTE has only been diagnosed post-mortem—and, in addition, the diagnosis had necessitated comprehensive autopsies or that the body be donated to science like Hernandez’s was.
But after Gandy performed tests on the brain of the still-living 73-year-old former New York Jets player, Dave Herman, and found what he believed to be CTE, it’s opened the floodgates for more research and a potential for diagnosing living patients.
Gandy is currently studying the brain of a former NFL player who sustained 22 concussions—and is anonymously quoted in the article—as well as 30 others, including combat veterans and other football players.
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