Retired Dallas Stars Captain Battling Brain Injury
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DALLAS (CBS11) - He's one of DFW's most popular athletes and he's sharing for the first time his battle with a brain injury.
Retired Dallas Stars Captain Brenden Morrow is proof it's not only football players who face challenges after repeated concussions.
Morrow created a lot of lasting memories on the ice at the American Airlines Center as a beloved captain for the Dallas Stars taking them to the Stanley Cup Finals.
He gave CBS11 an exclusive look inside his treatment for post concussion syndrome to preserve his own memories from a stellar career.
Morrow both delivered and received hits during 14 years with the Dallas Stars.
For the past three months, the 38-year-old has been going through an almost daily ritual of high-tech neurological testing and treatment at Cerebrum in Irving.
He says he was experiencing symptoms that caused him to worry.
"They were minor, slurry speech, maybe focus problems, I had some dizziness and some sleeping issues," said Morrow.
Morrow is only a year out of retirement from the NHL, but says he's experiencing post concussion syndrome from repeated blows to the head.
"Hockey is probably one more violent sports out there aside from maybe UFC and boxing," said Dr. Paul Shrogin, Cerebrum Director of Operations.
His doctor is also treating this former hockey player who had to give up the sport after four concussions as a teenager.
"It was my last hope I wasn't able to get out of bed for more than four hours a day," said Colleen Fagan, former high school hockey player.
Morrow says his injuries are treatable.
He wants his story to encourage young hockey players to take head injuries seriously.
"I did worry about it it's one of the reasons I came here I didn't want 10 or 15 years down the road for my wife to be caretaking for me and I want to be there for my kids," said Morrow.
Morrow says his brain injuries fortunately have not developed in the degenerative concussion disease known as CTE.
He's continuing his treatment to keep that from happening.