Cal U football player’s legal team calls Dr. Bennet Omalu as trial witness

Five years ago, the ornate Washington County Courthouse served as a set for scenes in the motion picture “Concussion,” for which actor Will Smith received a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of Dr. Bennet Omalu.
On Wednesday, a real-life drama related to football and physical trauma played out in the same courthouse.
But instead of an actor, renowned pathologist and epidemiologist Omalu was there in person, testifying in the case of a former California University of Pennsylvania linebacker, who watched the proceedings from his motorized wheelchair a decade after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Matthew Onyshko, 38, and his wife, Jessica, filed legal documents in 2014 against the National Collegiate Athletic Association, claiming the governing body failed to warn him of the risks of playing Division II football. Onyshko, who speaks with the aid of an eye-controlled computerized communication device, testified in court Monday about his disability.
Omalu, 50, a native of Nigeria, now lives in Sacramento, Calif. But when he was working under Dr. Cyril Wecht in Pittsburgh, he examined brain tissue of the late Steelers offensive lineman Mike Webster, connecting the trauma of playing professional football with neurodegenerative diseases.
Part of this spectrum, he mentioned during hours of testimony Wednesday, includes ALS. Omalu estimated he has done pathological examinations, some of them in private practice, of about 12,000 brains and spinal cords for various reasons. He also teaches.
His fees for testifying in court cases range from “pro bono,” meaning free of charge, to $600 per hour.
When NCAA attorney Arthur Hankin of Philadelphia asked if Omalu had testified in 300 civil cases, the doctor replied, “Possibly, but I don’t keep count.”
Omalu is also an author and Christian motivational speaker, and the courtroom erupted in laughter when Hankin, during cross-examination, mentioned he had attended one of Omalu’s speaking engagements.
“With all that going on, when do you have time to practice your craft of medicine?” Hankin asked.
Omalu seemed to assume his motivational role as he answered, looking directly at the jury, “The most powerful equity you have in your life is time, if you manage it well.”
Under direct examination by one of Onyshko’s attorneys, Justin Shrader, Omalu discussed a medical history of head trauma, beginning with Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, in 400 B.C.
Trauma to the brain is especially significant, Omalu said, because this organ doze not have the capacity to regenerate or heal itself.
In the 20th Century, physicians examined the brains of deceased boxers in an attempt to find out about what was called “punch drunkenness.”
The brain, Omalu said, is 60 to 80 percent water and it “floats freely inside the skull. Remember, the brain is very delicate.”
He testified about a chart that showed high school football players experience 520 hits per season, but in college, this rises to 1,354.
“Children should not receive even one impact,” Omalu said.
Often gesturing, he placed the incidence of ALS at two per 100,000 Americans among the general population, but said football players have a much higher risk.
Asked about the number of hits Onyshko sustained during his five-year college football career, Omalu put the number at “thousands.”
In cross-examination, Hankin displayed information from several websites that pointed to environmental factors, such as lead or mercury, that might be a cause of ALS. One also pointed to toxins in herbicides used on playing fields.
Omalu said Onysho’s blood did not reveal abnormal elemental levels. He also disputed information on the website fact sheets, saying it was written for the general public, not the medical or scientific community.
The doctor also maintained there are several types of ALS, and differentiated trauma-induced neurodegenerative ALS from what is called “sporadic ALS.”
Trauma can cause proteins to form abnormal connections, but Omalu, near the conclusion of his testimony, told the jury, “medicine is not an absolute science.”
Testimony in the trial before Judge Michael Lucas began May 1.