Benoit Suffered 'Striking' Levels of Brain Damage

Brain damage may have led pro wrestler Chris Benoit to kill his wife, their son, and himself, a neurosurgeon said today, calling the injuries “striking and maybe shocking.” Tests performed on the WWE performer’s brain showed “dead brain cells,” Julian Bailes told ABC, and the organ resembled the brain of an elderly Alzheimer's patient.

The damage was “very abnormal and something you shouldn’t see in a 40-year-old,” Bailes said, adding that three major concussions may result in serious consequences. Benoit’s father said his son suffered “quite a number” of concussions. The new tests follow warnings from medical experts not to automatically assume steroids lay behind Benoit’s breakdown, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. (More Chris Benoit stories.)