Even in death, Reggie Fleming’s brain is sending messages.
Researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine have determined the former NHL player, who endured multiple concussions during his career, suffered from degenerative brain disease at the time of his death. This marks the first time a hockey player has been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and adds to the growing concern about the long-term effect of concussions in hockey and the price exacted by the game’s physical nature.
Dr. Ann McKee at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University, examined Fleming’s brain tissue following his death July 11 at 73. Fleming played 13 seasons in the NHL for six teams and suffered approximately 20 concussions, his family said. He was an edgy competitor who didn’t wear a helmet (from 1959 to 1971) and played with little regard for his body.
Fleming also suffered from strokes and a heart attack in his later years but his brain tissue showed “typical CTE pathology,” according to McKee.
“The changes in [Fleming’s] brain were very similar to the changes we’ve found in [12] football players and [five] boxers,” McKee said. “This case also points out that individuals who suffer from CTE are often misdiagnosed during life and may be told that they are suffering from a psychiatric disorder, such as bipolar disease, or later in life, from Alzheimer’s disease.”
McKee takes thin slices of brain and applies a brown stain that indicates a protein called tau. High levels of tau are found in people with Alzheimer’s disease. Usually, a microscope is needed to detect the presence of tau.
But McKee said the build-up was so severe in the brains of the football players she examined that “the changes can be detected on the slides with the naked eye. … You never see this profound build-up in this distinctive pattern unless there is a history of repetitive head trauma.”
When Fleming played in the NHL, the equipment was of poorer quality and team trainers and physicians were not as informed as they are now. Yet the image of current NHL players left sprawled on the ice or being carted off on a stretcher after taking a hit to the head is fast becoming regular viewing.
Vancouver Canucks forward Ryan Johnson was involved in one of the NHL’s scarier scenes this season. The 33-year-old was skating full speed when he fell into the end boards at GM Place during an Oct. 28 game against the Detroit Red Wings.
Johnson suffered a concussion and was taken off the ice on a stretcher. He remembers waking up and being hovered over by “eight different doctors and medics telling me not to move.” Johnson was lucky; the postconcussion symptoms (headaches and fogginess) lasted only five days. When former Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brian Bradley had his concussion during the 1997-98 season, it ended his career.
“You’re just really irritable,” Bradley said of the physical and emotional toll. “Noise and movement bother you. You try and do a light bike ride and you feel like your head is going to explode. In my case, if I came back and got hit again, I could be in a wheelchair or a coma for the rest of my life.”
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the league “only recently became aware of the [Boston University] report” and “won’t have any comment until we have had a chance to read and digest it.”
