DIAGNOSIS ARTICLE + VIDEO:
The family of major league soccer player Scott Vermillion is speaking out about his posthumous diagnosis of CTE Dementia (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), a degenerative brain disease believed to be caused by repeated blows to the head and repeated episodes of concussion. Listen in.
Two years after his death, the family of Scott Vermillion is sharing their pain about his posthumous diagnosis of stage two chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
Scott Vermillion was an American professional soccer player from Olathe, Kansas, played for the Kansas City Wizards and Colorado Rapids. He was the first MLS player ever to be diagnosed with the disease.
Vermillion, 44, died of an accidental prescription drug overdose on December 25, 2020. But it took two years for the full truth to come out: it was CTE — a degenerative brain disease found in athletes, military veterans and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma — that led to his death.
In CTE, a protein called tau misfolds and malfunctions, causes other proteins to misfold, and sets off a chain reaction where this malfunctioning tau slowly spreads throughout the brain, killing brain cells.
The condition has been diagnosed in people as young as 17, but symptoms do not generally begin appearing until years after the onset of head impacts.
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