Tissue samples from the brain of a man who killed 18 people in an October shooting at a bowling alley and restaurant in Lewiston, Maine, show that it was caused by traumatic brain injury but not the neurological disorder CTE, according to the Concussion Legacy Foundation.
Robert Card, 40, was a US Army reservist and certified firearms instructor. They were ordered to go to the hospital and undergo a psychiatric examination Three months before the shooting. According to him, he had no combat deployments. Records Provided by the army. Card died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and his body was found two days after the October 25 shooting.
The Concussion Legacy Foundation by A press release That card is thought to have been exposed to “thousands of low-level explosions” while at an Army grenade training range on Wednesday.
Low-level explosive exposure is associated with Signs It can include attention and memory problems, irritability, and delayed reaction times. Research It found that some people exposed to low-level blasts, such as those in the military or law enforcement, had elevated levels of a protein in their blood linked to traumatic brain injury.
Maine Office of the Chief Medical Examiner he asked A postmortem study on Card’s brain from Boston University’s CTE Center “due to a combined history of military experience and actions,” office administrator Lindsay Chastain said in a statement in December. However, she said the findings do not change the results of the autopsy.
The study found that “Robert Card had evidence of traumatic brain injury. … There was no evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE),” said Dr. Anne McKee, director of BU’s CTE Center — who frequently collaborates with the Concussion Legacy Foundation — said in a statement Wednesday. “These findings are consistent with our previous studies on the effects of blast injury in humans and experimental models. Although we cannot say with certainty that these pathological findings underlie Mr. Card’s behavioral changes over the past 10 months, based on our previous work, brain damage likely played a role in his symptoms.”
Traumatic brain injury is usually caused by a blow to the head or a strong concussion that can shake the brain inside the head. Symptoms can range from mild – also known as tremors – to severe and include headaches, dizziness, loss of balance, depression, anxiety, mood swings and behavioral changes.
Repeated brain trauma or concussions can lead to CTE, or Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a debilitating neurological disease. It’s a type of dementia that can include symptoms of depression, anger, and forgetfulness, and it’s only after death that an autopsy is performed on brain samples.
Federal law enforcement source He told . The Army gave him a “command referral” card for treatment after he said he was “hearing voices” and had thoughts of “harming other soldiers.” A National Guard spokesman confirmed to that the card was transported to Keller Army Community Hospital at the US Military Academy for “medical evaluation” after Army Reserve officials reported the card was “misbehaving.”
The U.S. Army said in a statement Thursday that the CTE Center’s findings “underline the need to do everything possible to protect Soldiers from injuries caused by explosives.”
The Army and the Office of the Secretary of Defense are “updating guidance on how to prevent explosive overpressures,” the statement said. “In the near future, the Army will begin an Army-wide explosion overpressure safety campaign that will require increased awareness of potential hazards, risk reduction measures, documentation of training environments above 4 PSI, and monitoring of exposed personnel.”
The Concussion Legacy Foundation said the Card family is allowing brain tissue research to continue.
“We want to begin by saying how deeply saddened and saddened we are to the victims, survivors and their loved ones, and to all those affected and affected by this tragedy in Maine and beyond. We are hurting for you and with you, and it’s hard to put into words how much we want to undo what happened. “While we can’t go back, we are releasing the findings of Robert’s brain research to support ongoing efforts to learn from this tragedy,” the family said in a statement.
“Thank you to the Maine Chief Medical Examiner’s Office for requesting a brain analysis. We know it doesn’t fully explain Robert’s actions, or excuse his horrific suffering, but we thank Dr. McKee for helping us understand his brain damage and how it affected his mental health and behavior. By releasing these findings, we hope to increase awareness of traumatic brain injury among military service members, and encourage more research and support for military service members who have experienced traumatic brain injury.
‘s Karma Hassan, Haley Britzky and Nadia Kunang contributed to this report.