The Chris Benoit Case
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| Brain tissue slide comparison at the Michael Benoit-Sports Legacy Institute Press Conference 9/05/07 |
At a press conference on September 5, 2007, Chris Benoit's father, Michael Benoit, and the Sports Legacy Institute revealed that at the time of his death in June 2007, Chris' brain showed extensive signs of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). This damage, found by neuropathological tests conducted on Chris Benoit post-mortem, may have caused or contributed to his actions that destroyed his family.
Michael Benoit shared, "When Chris Nowinski
contacted me about conducting tests on Chris' brain, I was extremely hesitant given the circumstances surrounding my son's death. I agreed to the testing after he explained their desire to expand knowledge about the potential brain damage that athletes can suffer from repetitive head injuries in contact sports. When the results were explained to me by the SLI doctors, I was shocked to learn the extent of damage and saddened that he could have been suffering from this without anyone's knowledge. I hope the examination of Chris' brain leads to greater understanding and ultimately helps protect athletes of all ages."
SLI's research suggests a connection between repeated head injuries suffered by many athletes involved in contact sports and a collection of abnormal Tau proteins in the brain, causing CTE, whose common symptoms include depression, cognitive impairment, dementia, Parkinsonism, and erratic behavior. SLI's tests showed that Chris Benoit's brain had large amounts of abnormal Tau protein in the form of Neurofibrillary Tangles (NFTs) and Neuropil Threads (NTs). Multiple NFTs and NTs were distributed in all regions of the brain including the neocortex, the limbic cortex, subcortical ganglia and brainstem ganglia, and were accompanied by loss of brain cells, a condition for which no other neuropathological evidence for any chronic or acute disorder could be found. Dr. Julian Bailes explains "Because my SLI colleagues and I have found evidence of CTE in the brains of four former professional football players, we felt an examination of Chris Benoit's brain may bring awareness to CTE's existence outside of boxers and football players. The findings of CTE in Chris Benoit suggest that there may be a common syndrome among athletes who suffer multiple head injuries in contact sports." |
