Forensic pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu made the discovery of a lifetime when an autopsy revealed something unexpected in the brain of a former Hall of Fame NFL player. Dr. Omalu meticulously researched concussions, hoping to find some explanation of the damage to the brain of Mike Webster (aka "Iron Mike"). Could the newly coined CTE, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, be responsible for Iron Mike's mental decline as well? Step inside the pages of CONCUSSION and see Dr. Bennet's journey, from a childhood in war-torn Nigeria to the doctor who discovered a secret the NFL didn't want revealed.
CONCUSSION wasn't exactly the story I expected when I opened the pages. I expected a far more clinical journey as we learned how the discovery and diagnosis of CTE came about. Instead, Jeanne Marie Laskas tells a far more introspective story, as we see the man behind the discovery. We learn about Dr. Omalu's own struggles and search for his place in the world, which adds a unique dimension to the overall story.
I wanted to cheer for Dr. Omalu and his willingness to tackle such a powerful monopoly as the NFL. However, the story kept detouring off in unexpected directions, from a legal case against Dr. Omalu's former boss, Dr. Cyril Wecht, to the history of the Nigerian civil war to race relations in America. I think I would have enjoyed CONCUSSION a bit more if the storyline had been more cohesive as it seems Jeanne Marie Laskas tried to do too much in such a short book.
CONCUSSION is a story that NFL fans will either love- or love to hate. The NFL has implemented strict protocols in regards to concussions, but the issue remains deeply divisive. While I enjoyed learning more about the doctor who first discovered CTE, I wanted to know more about how the clinical histories of the various NFL players. Readers who are looking for a more biographical approach to the issue will appreciate CONCUSSION.
Soon to be a major motion picture starring Will Smith,
CONCUSSION is the riveting, unlikely story of Dr. Bennet
Omalu, the pathologist who made one of the most significant
medical discoveries of the twenty-first century, a
discovery
that challenges the existence of Americaโs favorite sport
and puts Omalu in the crosshairs of footballโs most
powerful
corporation: the NFL.
Jeanne Marie Laskas first met the young forensic
pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu in 2009, while reporting a
story for GQ
that would go on to inspire the movie Concussion.
Omalu told her about a day in September 2002, when, in a
dingy morgue in downtown Pittsburgh, he picked up a scalpel
and made a discovery that would rattle America in ways
heโd never intended.
Omalu was new to America, chasing the dream, a deeply
spiritual man escaping the wounds of civil war in Nigeria.
The
body on the slab in front of him belonged to a fifty-year-
old named Mike Webster, aka โIron Mike,โ a Hall of Fame
center
for the Pittsburgh Steelers, one of the greatest ever to
play the game. After retiring in 1990, Webster had suffered
a
dizzyingly steep decline. Toward the end of his life, he
was living out of his van, tasering himself to relieve his
chronic
pain, and fixing his rotting teeth with Super Glue.
How did this happen?, Omalu asked himself. How did a young
man like Mike Webster end up like this? The search for
answers would change Omaluโs life forever and put him in
the crosshairs of one of the most powerful corporations in
America: the National Football League. What Omalu
discovered in Websterโs brainโproof that Iron Mikeโs mental
deterioration was no accident but a disease caused by blows
to the head that could affect everyone playing the gameโ
was the one truth the NFL wanted to ignore.
Taut, gripping, and gorgeously told, CONCUSSION is the
stirring story of one unlikely manโs decision to stand up
to a
multibillion-dollar colossus, and to tell the world the
truth.
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