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Nine-year-old Carson Barry lost his seventeen-year-old brother Cullen in 2011. After years of playing ice hockey and suffering repeated head trauma, as well as three concussions within the last eighteen months of his life, Cullen committed suicide. The autopsy showed he had died from CTE, Chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
There is no cure for this degenerative disease. It can manifest assorted complications including attention deficit disorder, disorientation, dizziness, headaches, memory loss, speech difficulties, erratic behavior and/or movement, progressive dementia, movement disorders, hypomimia, speech impediments, tremors, vertigo, deafness, and suicidality. Additional symptoms include dysarthria, dysphagia, and ocular abnormalities – such as ptosis.
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is Chronically Misunderstood
Twelve-years-old Carson is a recognized Concussionologist who has made it his business to understand the dynamics of head trauma so he can stop others from suffering from CTE and committing suicide. The video that follows shows him speaking at the 2015 Congress of Future Medical Leaders in Lowell, MA.
He talks about the link between helmets, impact, and brains. He explains that the trouble with concussions is that they are hard to identify, hard to treat as there is no standardized care in the US, and emotional effects often not identified or understood. The statistics on teenage suicide show it is the number two killer behind car wrecks.
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