Brain injuries are often the result of a single traumatic incident. However, repeated blows to the head can also cause damage to a person’s brain. These injuries are often difficult to diagnose, but they can have a huge impact on an individual’s life and require a great deal of medical care and rehabilitation. Those who have suffered from a brain injury should understand that the law may allow them to seek compensation for their injuries.

Football fans in the Boston area may remember linebacker Junior Seau. He played in the NFL for 20 seasons and finished his career in 2009 with the New England Patriots. Seau took his own life last May. After his death, his family sent his brain to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. After a six-month study, Seau’s brain was diagnosed with a degenerative brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.

Seau’s case is hardly an isolated incident. In fact, 4,000 former players have filed a federal lawsuit against the NFL. Those players say the NFL didn’t acknowledge that football could cause brain damage, even though former players were found to have CTE. Despite Seau’s diagnosis, his family is currently undecided about joining the lawsuit. However, when his former wife was asked if the NFL’s response to this issue was too slow, she said she believed that it was.

Stories such as this show how many different ways the brain can become injured and what the results of such brain injuries can be. People who have suffered from brain damage should understand that they might be entitled to compensation for their injuries.

Source: USA Today, “Seau brain disease sends alarms among players, critics,” Erik Brady and Gary Mihoces, Jan. 10, 2012