About eight months after his terrible demise, Demaryius Thomas’ cause of death has been revealed.
A study from the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that the former NFL star wide receiver had died from complications from a seizure disorder. The 9NEWS and Denver Post obtained the report.
Less than six months after retiring from the NFL, on December 9 of last year, Thomas was discovered dead in the bathtub of his home in Roswell, Georgia. He was 33 years old and had 16 days until his 34th birthday.
Demaryius Thomas From Complications From a Seizure Disorder
In the autopsy report, Thomas’s cause of death was listed as “undetermined” by medical examiner Karen Sullivan.
The relatives of Thomas assumed that he had died from a seizure. After a car crash in 2019 in which Thomas’s vehicle rolled many times and banged his head on the windshield for going 70 mph in a 30-mph zone, he began having seizures.
The CTE Center at Boston University studied Thomas’s brain after his death last month and made the postmortem diagnosis of Stage 2 chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Repetitive blows to the head produce CTE, a degenerative brain disease.
“CTE itself does not cause death. You don’t die from CTE,” Dr. Ann McKee, director of Boston University’s CTE Center, told ABC News following the examination. “What CTE does is it changes your behavior and your personality.”
Thomas’s parents reported he had suffered from migraines, psychosis, memory loss, and mood swings in the year following his death.
Demaryius Thomas was found dead in his Roswell, Georgia home tonight, local police told TMZ. Exact cause of death is currently unclear, but early indications are it was a medical issue. No foul play is suspected at this time. So sad. https://t.co/HtOY4ZI3Vf
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 10, 2021
Sullivan indicated it was impossible to tell when asked in the postmortem report whether Thomas’ seizure disorder was caused by natural causes or by the head traumas he sustained throughout his playing career. The results of the autopsy were shown to Dr. Chris Nowinski of Boston University, who she said did not think Thomas’ seizure disorder was due to CTE.
Thomas, a graduate of Georgia Tech, was taken by the Denver Broncos in the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft. Thomas played for the Broncos for eight and a half years out of his ten-year NFL career, during which he made four Pro Bowls and won Super Bowl 50. He also had stints with the New York Jets, the New England Patriots, and the Houston Texans.
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