Following the tragic suicide of 29-year-old jockey Alex Canchari last week, his family told television station KMSP that they have decided to send the rider's brain to the Boston University Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center. The hope is to determine whether Canchari suffered from CTE.
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, is a disorder caused by repeated head trauma that first made headlines when several famous NFL players were diagnosed after their deaths. The disorder received additional headlines in 2015 with an Eclipse Award-winning Paulick Report feature about the dangers of multiple concussions for jockeys.
CTE can only be confirmed after a patient's death, but sufferers report dramatic mood shifts, cognition problems, and loss of coordination.
“Personally, I think this is very likely,” Alex's sister, Ashley Canchari, told KMSP. “My brother told me multiple times, 'I have hit my head so much and I've fallen so many times off of horses. I think there is something wrong.'”
The CTE rate in jockeys is largely unknown, because the disorder is not something that shows up on a standard autopsy.
Meanwhile, Canchari's fiancé Brooke-Lyn Klauser and two children have been forced out of their apartment in Shakopee, Minn., KMSP reports; the lease at TRIO was only under Canchari's name. Another unborn child is due in August, so Klauser has had to engage the services of a lawyer to attempt to resolve the family's living situation.
Klauser told KMSP: “My question is, 'Why? Why would you do this to me and the kids, after everything we're going through right now?'”
Ashley Canchari has also created a GoFundMe for her brother's family.
“All funds raised will benefit his children,” she wrote. “Due to the circumstance of his death, there are no life insurance policies available.”
The post Alex Canchari’s Brain To Be Examined For Signs Of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
