(Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology. In other words, repetitive head trauma, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) may result in a syndrome that mimics ALS. In 2010, they presented convincing pathological evidence that “repetitive head trauma experienced in collision sports” may be associated with the development of motor-neuron disease. These doctors are presently conducting landmark research on the brains of deceased former NFL players. Maybe not, say a group of neurologists, physicians and pathologists at the Boston University School of Medicine Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy. Many die within a few years of being diagnosed others, such as the famed physicist Stephen Hawking, can live for years with their brains fully functioning even though their bodies and muscles have degenerated and wasted.īut was ALS the cause of Lou Gehrig’s death? He died on June 3, 1941, just 16 days shy of 37 years of age.Īpproximately 30,000 people living in the United States have the incurable and progressive ALS, most of them are men between the ages of 40 and 70 years. In retirement, he took on an active role as a member of the New York City Parole Commission, but by spring 1941, he had lost too much strength to fulfill those duties. Nevertheless, recovery was a belief Gehrig hung onto for the remaining two years of his life. Yet medical ethics and practice of this era often emboldened physicians to tell a patient partial truth about a lethal malady or, paternalistically, not to tell the patient at all, and, instead, only inform close relatives. Today’s medical consumer would be shocked to learn that Gehrig’s doctors couched the prognosis in terms of a 50-50 chance of recovery, even though they knew this not to be so. Harold Habein, certified his diagnosis of the poorly understood, rare and typically fatal ALS. On the 19th, Gehrig’s 36th birthday, his internist, Dr. Desperate to find out the cause of his problems, he and his wife visited the famed Mayo Clinic, from June 13 to June 19, 1939. Gehrig began experiencing his first neurological symptoms in 1938, right around the time of his 35th birthday. His history of so many head injuries may well have played a role in his rapid decline and death. He was a member of six World Series Championship teams (1927, 1928, 1932, 1936, 1937, 1938) and during his 14-year career, he knocked out 493 homers and 2,721 hits, batted in 1,995 runs, and achieved a lifetime batting average of. The Hall of Famer won the Triple Crown in 1934 and was the American League’s Most Valuable Player twice, in 19. Two months earlier, on May 1, 1939, Gehrig gallantly took himself out of the lineup because he could no longer will his body to perform the athletic miracles that made him, arguably, the best baseball player ever to play the game. Virtually every American today, be they a baseball fan or not, knows Lou Gehrig’s “bad break” was his diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fierce neurodegenerative disorder that robs one of muscle control, swallowing, breathing, and ultimately, life. And, of course, it was reprised and immortalized for many millions more by Gary Cooper in the 1942 Hollywood motion picture, “The Pride of the Yankees.” The American Film Institute later ranked “the luckiest man” speech the 38th best on its list of the 100 Greatest Movie Quotes, but these were no scripted lines. Thanks to radio broadcasts, millions more heard what is, without doubt, the most famous speech ever delivered from the diamond. Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth…I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for.” Lou Gehrig approached the microphone, looked out at the vast crowd of fans, and said, “For the past two weeks, you’ve been reading about a bad break. On his back was the number 4, indicating his position in the batting order, right after Ruth (#3) it was the first number to be “retired” in major league baseball. On May 1, 1939, Gehrig gallantly took himself out of the lineup because he could no longer will his body to perform athletic miracles.
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