PRINTER'S NO. 1444
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
SENATE RESOLUTION
No.
261
Session of
2018
INTRODUCED BY COSTA, JANUARY 29, 2018
INTRODUCED AND ADOPTED, JANUARY 29, 2018
A RESOLUTION
Recognizing January 30, 2018, as "CTE Awareness Day" in
Pennsylvania.
WHEREAS, Chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE is a
degenerative brain disease that appears in persons with a
history of repetitive brain trauma sustained over a period of
years; and
WHEREAS, CTE was first described in 1928 by Dr. Harrison
Martland in a study published in the Journal of the American
Medical Association linking brain injury and boxing (Martland,
Harrison S. (1928) "Punch Drunk." JAMA 91(15): 1103-1107); and
WHEREAS, It was not until 2002 that Dr. Bennet Omalu
discovered the first evidence of CTE in a professional football
player and, together with his colleagues at the University of
Pittsburgh, published the details of his groundbreaking findings
in 2005 (Omalu, B., DeKosky S., Minster, R., Kamboh, M.,
Hamilton, R., & Wecht, C. (2005) "Chronic Traumatic
Encephalopathy in a National Football League Player."
Neurosurgery, 57(1), 128-134); and
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WHEREAS, CTE is caused by a buildup of an abnormal protein
called tau in the brain which leads to brain cell death; and
WHEREAS, The risk of developing CTE is greatest among
athletes and military veterans who frequently endure repeated
subconcussive blows to the head from playing contact sports or
suffer traumatic injury from military training or blasting, but
CTE also appears in survivors of domestic abuse and persons with
epilepsy; and
WHEREAS, Although symptoms associated with CTE, such as
memory loss, tremors, progressive dementia, depression, suicidal
thoughts, impaired judgment, paranoia and substance abuse and
addiction, most often present years or decades after the brain
trauma or hits cease, symptoms have been found in a patient as
young as 17 years of age; and
WHEREAS, Currently, CTE can only be definitively diagnosed
after death through postmortem neuropathological analysis; and
WHEREAS, Advocacy organizations, health care providers and
institutional researchers are dedicated to studying the causes
and symptoms of CTE in order to enable parents and families to
make informed decisions regarding the best interests of their
children in youth sports and to develop an earlier diagnostic
tool so patients may address CTE symptoms as early as possible;
and
WHEREAS, One such advocacy organization is the Patrick Risha
CTE Awareness Foundation, founded by the family of Patrick
Risha, who suffered from CTE after playing youth, high school
and college football; and
WHEREAS, The mission of the Patrick Risha CTE Awareness
Foundation is to provide parents of school-age children, who
have very susceptible brains, with information about the dangers
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of sports which involve head trauma; and
WHEREAS, The Patrick Risha CTE Awareness Foundation and other
organizations celebrate "CTE Awareness Day" across the United
States in order to reflect on those individuals lost to CTE,
help those suffering with the disease, and, most importantly,
stop the disease; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the Senate of Pennsylvania recognize January
30, 2018, as "CTE Awareness Day" in Pennsylvania.
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