Despite suffering several concussions during his professional and amateur hockey career, deceased NHL enforcer Todd Ewen’s brain did not show signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), according to the Canadian Concussion Centre.
CTE is a neurodegenerative brain disorder that has been linked to multiple concussions, the CCC said in a statement.
“These results indicate that in some athletes, multiple concussions do not lead to the development of CTE,” said Dr. Lili-Naz Hazrati, a neuropathologist who conducted the autopsy. “Our findings continue to show that concussions can affect the brain in different ways. This underlines the need to not only continue this research, but also be cautious about drawing any definitive conclusions about CTE until we have more data.”
Ewen racked up 1,911 penalty minutes in 518 NHL games with St. Louis, Montreal, Anaheim and San Jose.
READ MORE: Todd Ewen, former NHL enforcer, dies at 49
He died at age 49 on Sept. 19, reportedly of a self-inflicted gunshot.
His wife, Kelli Ewen donated her husband’s brain to the CCC to be studied. She says Todd was convinced he had CTE.
“Every time it was announced that a fellow player had CTE, Todd would say: ‘If they had CTE, I know I have CTE.’ He was terrified by the thought of a future living with a degenerative disease that could rob him of his quality of life, and cause him to be a burden to his family,” says Kelli Ewen in a statment.
The autopsy results showing that Todd did not have CTE were unexpected.
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“We were very surprised by the results as we were sure Todd must have had CTE,” said Kelli. “We hope that anyone suffering from the effects of concussion takes heart that their symptoms are not an automatic diagnosis of CTE. Depression coupled with other disorders can have many of the same symptoms as CTE.”
The CCC also stated that even though Ewen suffered from memory loss, chronic body pain, diabetes and depression prior to his death, his brain showed no sign of any neurodegenerative disease.
The CCC said it has analyzed 20 brains, with roughly half showing signs of CTE or the presence of another neurodegenerative disease.
With files from Canadian Press
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