After determining that retired NFL player W.H.’s death was due to degenerative brain injuries stemming from repeated concussions he suffered during his career, his family filed a wrongful death lawsuit naming the NFL for its failure in sharing their research results and distorting the results, as reported by the Courthouse News Service.
W.H.’s son, E.F., filed the claim in Federal Court on behalf of himself, his father’s estate and his mother, M.H.
W.H. died in 2008 at the age of 66 at his home in Lakeville, Minn. He had played for the Minnesota Vikings for four Super Bowl games and also played for the Detroit Lions before retiring in 1979.
The lawsuit is one of many that are currently filed against the NFL. All state that the NFL not only distorted or buried its on research on head injuries, but also failed to share the repeated warnings that head injuries could result in delayed neurological disorders, and in some cases, death.
In all, over 40 former NFL players, and their wives, have filed federal complaints against NFL Philadelphia – and all on the same day that the W.H. suit was filed.
The NFL is accused of ignoring decades of head injury research that warned post-traumatic brain injury could result in symptoms such as: dizziness, loss of memory, dementia, Alzheimer's disease and encephalopathy.
The suit states that the NFL failed to “act reasonably by developing appropriate means to identify at-risk players and guidelines or rules regarding return-to-play criteria” and that the “defendant's breach of duty in this respect increased the risk of long-term injury and illness.”
After his retirement from the NFL, W.H. began a real estate business with another former player, S.V. By 2003 W.H. began experiencing both loss of memory and muscle weakness.
At the time of his death, family members were told that the cause was due to complications associated with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also referred to as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. But, in 2010, when organs he had donated to the Boston School of Medicine had been studied by members of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalomyopathy it was determined that the true cause of death was Chronic Traumatic Encephalomyopathy.
Beginning in the 1960s the NFL was aware, according to the lawsuit, that repeated concussions were dangerous. Up through 2009 the NFL was allegedly still attempting to publicly refute its own findings.
The complaint reads: “On September 30, 2009, as a part of its continuing active role in disputing and covering up the causative role of repeated concussions suffered by NFL players and long-term mental health disabilities and illnesses, the defendant disputed the results of a scientific study that it funded. On the aforementioned date, newspaper accounts were published detailing (an unreleased) study commissioned by the NFL to assess the health and well-being of retired players, which found that the players had reported being diagnosed with dementia and other memory-related diseases at a rate significantly higher than that of the general population. Despite the findings of this study, showing that 6.1 percent of retired NFL players age 50 and above reported being diagnosed with dementia, Alzheimer's disease and other memory related illnesses, compared to a 1.2 percent for all comparably aged U.S. men, the defendant's agents disputed these findings and continued the mantra in the press that there is no evidence connecting concussions, concussion-like symptoms, NFL football and long-term brain illness or injury, including but not limited to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), dementia, etc.”
The family is asking for damages for claims concealment, civil conspiracy and negligence.
Contact a personal injury lawyer if you have a case of wrongful death. Often an award is made that will cover your damages.