Concussion medic didn't identify head trauma syndrome as Will Smith film claims, say doctors
The Guardian
Andrew Oulver
December 19,2015
Bennet Omalu, played by Will Smith in the film Concussion, says accusations that he overstated his role in the discovery of the condition CTE are ‘totally false’
Medical professionals have cast doubt on some of the research claims made by forensic pathologist Bennet Omalu, whose pioneering work in the field of identifying head trauma in NFL players is the subject of the Will Smith film Concussion.
According to a doctor interviewed by AP, assertions by Omalu that he discovered and identified the condition CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), which he diagnosed during the autopsy of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Mike Webster, are “just not true”. AP quote William Stewart, a neuropathologist at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, as saying: “I think he knows that … chronic traumatic encephalopathy has been around for decades. It’s not a new term … The only thing I would say that Bennet has done is that he identified it in an American footballer.”
On being contacted by AP, Omalu denied suggestions he had exaggerated his role. He told AP: “This is totally false … There is a good deal of jealousy and envy in my field. For me to come out and discover the paradigm shift, it upset some people. I am well aware of that.” He also blamed “people historically who have made a systematic attempt to discredit me, and to marginalise me”.
A Sony Pictures spokesperson also blamed professional jealousy. “It is not surprising that there are those that are still trying to undermine Dr Omalu’s work … What is beyond dispute is that Dr Omalu’s discovery shined a light on a reality that the NFL ignored for too long and continues to play out every Sunday.”
Omalu is a forensic pathologist whose autopsy on Webster in 2002 led to his conclusion that the former NFL player suffered from a condition he claims to have named CTE. The condition dementia pugilistica is known to have existed for decades in boxing; however, the term first appears in the 1949 study entitled Punch-Drunk Syndromes: the Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy of Boxers, by British neurologist Macdonald Critchley. Omalu faced stiff opposition from the NFL in accepting the implications of his research into the damage that football players could sustain.