Accroding to ESPN, U.S. and Canadian neuropathologists confirm BMX icon Dave Mirra had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease associated with dementia, memory loss and depression. CTE isn't rare in the sporting industry, especially among hockey players, boxers, and football players.
Mirra died Feb. 4th from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Haunted by his change in personality over the last year of his life, his widow, Lauren, requested doctors study his brain. She knew something wasn't right about her late husband's total lack of presence and debilitating fragility. She wanted closure.
Dr. Lili-Naz Hazrati, the first neuropathologist to look into Mirra's case, found tau deposits in his frontal and temporal lobes, deposits identical to those found in the brains of football and hockey players with CTE. She says that "The trauma itself defines the disease, not how you got the trauma."
For Mirra, the trauma was multiple concussions over decades. A car hit him at age 19, fracturing his skull, and he took many knocks to the head when he dabbled in boxing after retiring from BMX. Earning 24 X Games medals (the record pre-2013) didn't come without a price either; along the way, he endured countless brain injuries.
RELATED: Mirra's tragic Suicide raises Concerns over Impact of Concussions
Hazarti's discovery didn't just clear things up for Lauren; it has brought the disease more awareness. Researchers strive to diagnose CTE in the living, the ultimate goal being early intervention. You can't stop living your life, and you can't live in fear–pushing yourself leads to progression, and a world without progression would be terrible–but you can detect diseases early enough to skirt tragedy, and that's what needs to happen here.
The NFL is currently under fire for long-standing attempts to shape concussion research for its own purposes. In March, The NFL acknowledged (for the first time!) the link between football and brain disease, but after waging a behind-the-scenes campaign to influence a major U.S. government research study on the correlation, their integrity is being questioned. It's not cool to withhold funding for brain disease research. And we're not talking pocket change. We're talking $16 million. The kicker? Taxpayers ended up bearing the cost.
An article we published the day after Mirra's death speculated CTE's part in his suicide. Three months later, we're pleased the disease has become less of a mum topic. We owe thanks to people like Lauren, people who choose to see beauty from ashes.
