‘Parts of his brain that were asleep are now waking up’

A DOCTOR who helped treat former England captain Dylan Hartley said parts of his brain had ‘gone to sleep’ due to repetitive blows to the head during his rugby career.

‘Think of the head like a hot water bottle,’ says Dr Umair Qureshi, consultant at Aviv Clinics Dubai, where Hartley has undergone treatment.

‘The water can move around inside but the rubber bottle goes nowhere. That’s the same as the brain inside the skull. When you bang your head, the brain moves around. Keep knocking it and it will continually move back and forth and get damaged by the structure that’s meant to hold it in place.

‘When you damage brain tissue, it’s not as active as it was. It’s almost like that part of the brain has gone to sleep. If it goes to sleep, it doesn’t require as much “fuel” to function, hence, the body sends less blood to that area and ultimately, less oxygen. The more blood it sends, the more oxygen it sends.’

This, says Qureshi, is what happened to parts of Hartley’s brain during his rugby career.

‘Certain areas of his brain have not being getting enough blood and oxygen. When that happens, the brain does not work as well as it should.

‘We can see that on his brain scans (above). On the MRI scans you want to see more red, which shows good blood flow. On the SPECT scans you want to see more white and red. You also want to see symmetry between the left and right sides of the brain.

‘If you look at Dylan’s brain before treatment on the SPECT scan, you can see there’s more white and red on the right side. The lack of symmetry also suggests abnormality.’

Dr Qureshi says you can see improvements in his scans after his hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment.

‘The two sides of the SPECT scan look more symmetrical. There’s more red on the MRI scan. That shows increased blood flow. Those parts of his brain that were asleep have started to wake up.’