Monday afternoon football update

This weekend in American football:

1. A Rutgers' University student athlete was paralyzed from the neck down after an in-game incident against Army.
Update (10-19-2010): The most recent medical literature says that 90% of patients with complete tetraplegia (aka quadraplegia) at one month post-injury remain complete tetraplegics for good.  After 6 months, there is little change in a person's neurological status caudal to the spinal injury.  In other words, the coming days and weeks will be hugely informative of the athlete's function long into the future.  Here's hoping he regains function.  Also, from what I have gleaned from the news reports, it does not appear that therapeutic hypothermia (TH) was tried.  Recall that TH was used when Buffalo Bills' player Kevin Everett was injured back in 2007.  Although the use of TH in his case is still being debated, he was able to walk within ~one month of the injury.


2. Yesterday's NFL games featured several instances of traumatic brain injuries.