Recently Harvard Medical School’s blog noted a possible association between mild traumatic brain injury and the development of Lou Gehrig’s Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).  ALS is a disastrous disease that is regarded as a terminal diagnosis. The association of the two conditions has been developed out of a study of NFL players. That study found that ALS was a significant killer of players over time who were diagnosed with the disease in their 30’s, and that those former players who played an average of 4.5 years had less incidence of the disease.  There is also an expression of the possibility that Mr. Gehrig actually died with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) from repeated concussions, noting that CTE could have had ALS type symptoms.

Surely it will not be long before “experts” will be testifying in real and feigned TBI claims that ALS is just around the corner, and the claims made will include damages for the fear of the diagnosis arising from a traumatic brain injury claim. If the claimed injury occurs to a person with a claim of prior multiple concussions, the one accident in any case with mTBI diagnosed, it would be easy for that claim to be made until somewhere it sticks.  Read the literature on so-called shaken baby syndrome (SBS) and Abusive Head Trauma (AHT) and you can see how scientifically invalid dogma can lead to many criminal convictions.  It can happen.

You can read more about this study at Harvard Medical School.