NFL Conference Championship Day Special: Waiting to Hear From Child Brain Injury Expert Dr. Howard Derman

The second title of the Concussion Inc. ebook shorts series, UPMC: Concussion Scandal Ground Zero, is now available for $1.49 on Amazon Kindle, http://amzn.to/A0HQ2g, or as a simple PDF file by remitting $1.49 to paypal@muchnick.net.

On Friday I wrote a column for Beyond Chron in San Francisco in which I cited this inane quote from Houston Methodist Hospital Concussion Center’s Dr. Howard Derman: “[T]he plasticity — flexibility, in layman’s terms — in the brain is greater in a child, and it has more room to swell. So things we see in adult football players are slightly less of a concern in children.” This was for a Houston Chronicle story last September in which the reporter pushed the viewpoint that youth football is safer than is usually assumed, and even suggested that it is safer than cheerleading!

In a”private” email, Dr. Derman — whose medical group advertises its affiliation with the Houston Texans of the National Football League — maintained that I used his quote wildly out of context, among other complaints.

I wrote to Derman and challenged him to make his “private” email public.

I’m still waiting to hear back.

Irv Muchnick

SEE:

‘Heads Up! 49ers Write New Chapter of Their History’ … today at Beyond Chron

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Houston NFL Doc Howard Derman Complains ‘Privately’ About Muchnick Beyond Chron Column

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Concussion Inc. Flashback: ‘Independent Neurologists’? NFL OK’s Doctors’ ‘Sponsorship’ Relationships With Teams