Death
On December 16, 2009, Henry was involved in a car accident in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he sustained grave injuries. Charlotte police stated that Henry fell out of the back of a moving truck driven by his fiancee, Loleini Tonga, while they were engaged in a domestic dispute. Tonga has three children by Henry. On December 17, 2009, Charlotte police announced that Henry had died at 6:36 a.m. ET at Carolinas Medical Center. Two days later, on December 19, police confirmed that Henry died of blunt force trauma to the head. No charges were filed against his fiancee, and police announced that they found no evidence that Tonga drove recklessly or with excessive speed.
To honor Henry, every game of Week 15 (December 17–21) in the NFL began with a moment of silence before kickoff.
"Our football team, what they're feeling yesterday and this morning ... they watched a guy mature as a young man and work through adversity," -Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis
On December 20, three days after Henry's death, the Bengals traveled to Qualcomm Stadium to face the San Diego Chargers. As with all the other Week 15 games, a moment of silence was held before kickoff. Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco, a close friend of Henry's, openly wept during the silence. Later in the game, on his first touchdown reception, Ochocinco dropped to his knee and paid tribute to Henry in the endzone.
In June 2010, the Brain Injury Research Institute of West Virginia University released a report that Henry had developed a brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy during his playing career due to multiple hard hits to the head. While several former NFL players had been found to have the disease after their deaths, Henry was believed to be the first still-active NFL player to have it. The discovery that Henry had CTE has become a serious issue of concern for football and brain safety, especially since Henry was relatively young and had never been diagnosed with a concussion in either his five NFL seasons or his college career at West Virginia. Concern has been raised whether an accumulation of lesser blows could eventually be enough to cause brain damage. It was also believed that the brain damage Henry suffered may have been a factor in his numerous off-the-field incidents.
After his death, Henry's mother made the decision to donate his organs for transplant. Henry's corneas, lungs, kidneys, heart, liver, and pancreas were transplanted, saving the lives of four people.
Read more about this topic: Chris Henry (wide Receiver)
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“If thee thy brittle beauty so deceives,
Know then the thing that swells thee is thy bane;
For the same beauty doth, in bloody leaves.
The sentence of thy early death contain.”
—Sir Richard Fanshawe (1608–1666)
“The things a man has to have are hope and confidence in himself against odds, and sometimes he needs somebody, his pal or his mother or his wife or God, to give him that confidence. He’s got to have some inner standards worth fighting for or there won’t be any way to bring him into conflict. And he must be ready to choose death before dishonor without making too much song and dance about it. That’s all there is to it.”
—Clark Gable (1901–1960)
“Water, earth, air, fire, and the other parts of this structure of mine are no more instruments of your life than instruments of your death. Why do you fear your last day? It contributes no more to your death than each of the others. The last step does not cause the fatigue, but reveals it. All days travel toward death, the last one reaches it.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)