Skating legend copes with brain injury
By Kat Carney
CNN Headline News
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Dick Button: "I'm told I had to be put in a straitjacket for the first five days because I was so violent, which is a reflection of having really damaged your brain."
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(CNN) -- Figure skating legend Dick Button has a voice familiar to fans of ABC's "Wide World of Sports" ice skating coverage. But in 2000, a serious accident during a leisurely skate nearly silenced the announcer.
"What happened was that I must have tried a jump, and I fell. I've skated all my life and I've never fallen. All of a sudden this time, whammo, and it happened unexpectedly. When I fell, all I know is the blood was coming out of my ear. I had a concussion, and I lost the hearing in this ear," Button says.
Every 21 seconds, someone in the United States suffers a traumatic brain injury, usually from a blow to the head, according to the Brain Injury Association of America.
Traumatic brain injury is a medical emergency and symptoms can include vision and balance problems, confusion, slurred speech -- or worse. At the time of his injury, Button says he suffered some of those symptoms.
"I'm told I had to be put in a straitjacket for the first five days because I was so violent, which is a reflection of having really damaged your brain."
The road to recovery
"I don't remember the first month," Button says. "The second month is very vague to me. Some of my family was apparently told that I might never be able to balance a checkbook again or that I might never be able to commentate on skating again or that I wouldn't be able to run a business again. And they were very good to me, saying, 'I don't think you know him very well.'"
But Button, five-time world champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist, in 1948 and 1952, proved he could still beat the odds.
After months of rehabilitation, which included learning to walk again, Button is back in front of the camera on ABC. He's also taken on a new role as the national spokesman for the Brain Injury Association of America.
"One of the reasons why I'm a spokesperson today for the brain injury association is that nobody else will come along and admit that they've had a brain injury. Well, I'm old enough and far enough along in this world that I can say I've had a brain injury. I'm also lucky enough to be able to say I have, I think, to a great deal recuperated from that brain injury."
As a result of his accident, Button says he still has some hearing loss, as well as difficulties with his memory. But as time passes, he manages to have a sense of humor about it all.
"Sometimes I forget names, though I'm told that's not necessarily brain injury, that's just forgetting names."
