In the summer of 2019, the promising future of 18-year-old Wyatt Bramwell of Pleasant Hill, Missouri, came to a tragic end. On July 30, the recent high school graduate, who was set to attend the University of Missouri for Mechanical Engineering and Business, took his own life. His death left his family and community grappling with unanswered questions about the kind, caring, and accomplished young man they knew.
Wyatt was a celebrated football player, earning numerous accolades throughout his high school career.
In the months leading up to his death, Wyatt's parents noticed a significant change in his behavior. He became angry and impulsive, a stark contrast to his usual easygoing nature. Before he died, Wyatt recorded a video message admitting to a long battle with depression, racing thoughts, and hearing voices he described as demons. In a final, prescient act, he requested that his brain be donated for research, suspecting a connection between the hits he endured playing football and his declining mental state. He intentionally shot himself in the chest, a decision his family believes was made to preserve his brain for autopsy.
Wyatt's family honored his last wish and donated his brain to the UNITE Brain Bank at Boston University. Researchers there made a startling discovery: Wyatt had stage 2 Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma. He was the first teenage football player to be diagnosed with this advanced stage of the disease. This diagnosis provided a devastating explanation for the profound changes his family had witnessed and shed light on the internal struggle that this young man, with a seemingly bright future, had been enduring.
