ARCHIVE 9/5/07: Preview of Findings on Chris Benoit’s Brain

Preview of Findings on Chris Benoit’s Brain

Wednesday, September 5th, 2007

Michael Benoit, father of Chris Benoit, will be coordinating a series of public appearances over the next two days to highlight information about the condition of the wrestler’s brain before he murdered his wife and their son, and committed suicide, over the course of a weekend in June.

Tomorrow (Wednesday, September 5) Michael Benoit will hold a news conference in New York along with Dr. Julian Bailes, chair of neurosurgery at West Virginia University; Dr. Robert Cantu, director of sports medicine at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Massachusetts; and attorney Cary Itchter. Benoit also will be interviewed on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and “Nightline.” (The previous edition of this blog item incorrectly stated that Michael Benoit’s ABC News appearances would be Thursday.)

According to our sources, the medical experts will focus not only on classic postconcussion syndrome, but also on what are known as “frontal lobe syndromes.” Among the symptoms of frontal lobe syndromes, as listed in the American Psychiatric Textbook of Neuropsychiatry, are “blunted affect,” “emotional and/or social withdrawal,” and “aggression, outbursts of rage, and violent behavior.”

Michael Benoit is claiming that Chris Benoit had “diminished capacity,” a condition that would affect the application of Georgia law in the disposition of Chris’s estate. An additional question raised by these medical findings is whether World Wrestling Entertainment was or should have been aware of the wrestler’s condition.

Irvin Muchnick