Play Hard, Die Young: Football Dementia, Depression, and Death
(Forensic neuropathologist Bennet Omalu, MD, explains the ...)
Forensic neuropathologist Bennet Omalu, MD, explains the science of brain trauma, offers practical solutions, and recounts the moving stories of the lives—and tragic deaths—of NFL stars cut down by gridiron dementia.
A Historical Foundation of CTE in Football Players: Before the NFL, There was CTE
(Dr. Omalu identified and described Chronic Traumatic Ence...)
Dr. Omalu identified and described Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy [CTE] in American football players beginning in 2002 when he performed an autopsy on Mike Webster.Between 2002 and 2007, Dr. Omalu identified the very first five cases of CTE in football players, and identified the very first case of CTE in a professional American wrestler in 2007 when he examined the brain of Chris Benoit. In 2007 and 2009, Dr. Omalu again, identified the very first two cases of CTE in retired war veterans suffering from PTSD.
Truth Doesn't Have a Side: My Alarming Discovery about the Danger of Contact Sports
(You’ll be inspired by Dr. Bennet Omalu a man driven by hi...)
You’ll be inspired by Dr. Bennet Omalu a man driven by his love and concern for the welfare of all people, and his professional vow to speak the truth.
Bennet Ifeakandu Omalu is a Nigerian-American physician, forensic pathologist, and neuropathologist who was the first to discover and publish findings of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) by examining American football players while working at the Allegheny County Coroner's Office in Pittsburgh. He later became the chief medical examiner for San Joaquin County, California, and is a professor at the University of California, Davis.
Background
Bennet Ifeakandu Omalu was born in September 1968 at Nnokwa, in Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State, in southeastern geo-political zone of Nigeria. He is the sixth, out of seven siblings. His parents gave birth to him during the Nigerian Civil War, a situation that forced his family to flee from their home situated in the Igbo village of Enugwu-Ukwu, in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State. They returned back home to their village two years after Omalu’s birth day. Omalu’s mother was a seamstress and his father a civil mining engineer and community leader in Enugwu-Ukwu. The family name, Omalu, is a shortened form of the surname, Onyemalukwube, which means “If anyone knows, let him/she, speak.”
Education
Omalu began primary school at age three, and earned entrance into the Federal Government College Enugu for secondary school. He attended medical school starting at age 16 at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. After graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) in June 1990, he completed a clinical internship, followed by three years of service work doctoring in the mountainous city of Jos. Omalu first came to Seattle, Washington in 1994 to complete an epidemiology fellowship at the University of Washington. In 1995, he left Seattle for New York City, where he joined Columbia University’s Harlem Hospital Center for a residency training program in anatomic and clinical pathology.
After residency, Omalu trained as a forensic pathologist under noted forensic consultant Cyril Wecht at the Allegheny County Coroner’s Office in Pittsburgh. Omalu became particularly interested in neuropathology.
Omalu holds eight advanced degrees and board certifications, later receiving: fellowships in pathology and neuropathology through the University of Pittsburgh in 2000 and 2002 respectively, a Masters in Public Health (MPH) & Epidemiology in 2004 from University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University in 2008.
Omalu is currently chief medical examiner of San Joaquin County, California and is a professor in the UC Davis Department of Medical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
Achievements
Omalu's efforts to study and publicize CTE in the face of NFL opposition were reported in a GQ magazine article in 2009 by journalist Jeanne Marie Laskas. The article was later expanded by Laskas into a book, Concussion (Penguin Random House, 2015), and adapted into a film of the same name where Omalu is the central character portrayed by Will Smith. The movie's production led to the creation of a foundation named after Omalu to advance CTE and concussion research.
His Bennet Omalu Foundation funds research, raises awareness, provides care and finds cures for people suffering from CTE and TBI. He wants to advance the Humanity of Science
(Dr. Omalu identified and described Chronic Traumatic Ence...)
2014
research
Discovery of CTE
(The first to discover and publish findings of chronic tra...)
2002
Religion
This is what he has to say about his religious beliefs: "I'm a spiritual person. I'm a Catholic, I treat my patients, the dead patients, as live patients. I believe there's life after death. And I talk to my patients. I talk to them, not loudly, but quietly in my heart when I look at them. Before I do an autopsy, I must have a visual contact with the face. I do that. I'll come out of respect; I'll look at the face."
Politics
Bennet Omalu believes in true democracy. It was because of political itch in Nigeria that forced him to seek aboard in the USA. He became disillusioned with Nigeria after presidential candidate Moshood Abiola failed to win the Nigerian presidency after an inconclusive election in 1993 and began to search for scholarship opportunities in the United States.
Views
Quotations:
“What is there to be afraid of? If I profess to be a Christian seeking the truth, why would I stop?”
"You could be anything, you could do anything - I never wanted anything as much as I wanted to be an American."
"All of these animals have shock absorbers built into their bodies. The woodpecker's tongue extends through the back of the mouth out of the nostril, encircling the entire cranium. It is the anatomical equivalent of a safety belt for its brain. Human beings? Not a single piece of our anatomy protects us from those types of collisions. A human being will get concussed at sixty G's. A common head-to-head contact on a football field? One hundred G's. God did not intend for us to play football."
