When quarterback Kurt Warner suffered a torn ligament in his left arm during the 2007 season, the Cardinals athletic training and medical staff rigged up a brace that allowed Warner to function and play the following week.
But two years later, there wasn’t that much that same staff could do for Warner after he suffered a concussion against the Rams and missed the following week.
The only remedy was rest.
The idea that there was treatment for an elbow injury – or an ankle, knee, hip, etc. -- and not one for a brain injury always struck Warner as odd, perhaps even ironic.
That’s part of what motivated Warner to become involved with a Florida company called Prevacus, which is trying to market a drug that could be given in the hours after a head injury and could decrease the impact of concussion symptoms.
Dr. Vernon Williams, a sports neurologist and director of the Center for Sports Neurology and Pain Medicine at the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe institute in Los Angeles, called what Prevacus is doing “important work.”