Hoag Hospital to Screen Retired NFL Players for Brain Injuries

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian has been picked as the first West Coast location for former NFL players to get a checkup on their overall health as part of the settlement of a lawsuit regarding concussion, the Newport Beach facility announced today.

“This benefit provides certain eligible retired NFL players the ability to have a one-time health assessment of their brain health and physical health at one of six institutions around the country,” said Dr. Michael Brant- Zawadzki, the executive medical director of Hoag Neurosciences Institute.

The closest one for West Coast residents is in Las Vegas, Brant-Zawadzki said.

“One of the reasons we were chosen is partly because of our expertise, but there is also a significant number of NFL players who live between San Diego and Los Angeles counties,” the doctor told City News Service.

“We have a high concentration of retired football players who obviously found it a nice area to retire with the good weather, etc., so they wanted a West Coast site.”

It’s an important benefit for many retired players because experts have found they struggle with making choices on medical matters after their playing careers. That’s largely because the players rely so heavily on team doctors and don’t know what to do when they are out of the game, Brant-Zawadzki said.

“They haven’t had to think about health care, so once they retire it’s surprising how unsophisticated they can be about regular health care,” Brant- Zawadzki said.

Brant-Zawadzki said he has even heard anecdotes about players calling the team doctor for advice when their wives get pregnant.

It’s critical that they get some care following football because of what experts are learning about the long-term effects of gridiron collisions are having on the brain, Brant-Zawadzki said.

The benefit is essentially a “heavy-duty executive physical” that takes a day and a half, the doctor said. Part of the checkup includes an imaging of their brain.

Then the former players receive a bundle of information about their health that they can take back to a primary care physician for follow-ups, Brant-Zawadzki said.

City News Service; Photo: Wikimedia Commons