"A head injury like this can change your personality. It changes how you relate to the people you love. It changes the way they think of you. It changes everything," Santagati said.

Steve Santagati was living a fast-paced life in the public eye when everything came to a sudden halt in 2002. A fall and head injury marked the beginning of a years-long battle that would change everything.

"The thing that really upset me is the reality that you don’t have the same brand you were born with. You’ll never be the same again."

Not only did Santagati lose his sense of taste and smell for years afterward, but the most difficult part was the mental toll the traumatic brain injury took on him.

"I was extremely depressed. I survived a brain injury that I should not have survived."

According to the American Brain Foundation, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE, can only be officially diagnosed through an autopsy of the brain. The American Medical Association states, "With hundreds of thousands of Americans sustaining concussions each year, it is vital that we research the full continuum of head impacts."