A troubled ex-USC football star died at 31. His family hoped that studying his brain for CTE would help others
BOSTON - The brains arrive at all hours in white cardboard boxes stamped "RUSH!" Inside each package is an inch-and-a-half-thick foam liner and a red bag protecting an ordinary white plastic bucket.
When a courier service delivered Kevin Ellison's brain to the Bedford VA Medical Center near Boston just after 2 p.m. on Jan. 22, Dr. Victor Alvarez performed the routine he has done so many times that he's stopped counting.
The neuropathologist unpacked the box, weighed the brain and examined it for contusions or hemorrhages. He snapped dozens of pictures with various exposures to capture differences in shape and color not apparent to the naked eye.
Alvarez processes most of the brains donated to the partnership between the Department of Veterans Affairs, Boston University CTE Center and the Concussion Legacy Foundation. He moves with care and speed, knowing each brain represents a family searching for answers.
Ellison's family donated his brain to be studied for CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the devastating neurodegenerative disease found in people who have suffered repeated head trauma but can be diagnosed only after death. Football players are its most prominent victims.
It had been three months since Ellison died at age 31 - and nearly a decade since his days on the football field as a hard-hitting defensive back, team captain and fan favorite at USC. He went on to play one season for the San Diego Chargers. The three words tattooed on his left arm summed up his approach to life: "Be the best."
Ellison had been living in an apartment behind his mother's home in Inglewood. He had earned an economics degree in college, but at the end he no longer drove and struggled to keep jobs. He had a headache that never really left. His neck hurt
