April 15, 2024
Brain bank confirms Guyton head injury
Testing by the Neurological Foundation’s Human Brain Bank in Auckland has confirmed Billy Guyton, the late Blues and Māori All Blacks halfback, had the brain injury CTE or chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Mr Guyton exhibited depressive behaviour before a suspected suicide in May last year, and his family suspected sports head injuries were a major factor.
Patria Hume, a professor of human performance at the Auckland University of Technology, says about 36,000 people receive head injuries annually – a third of them from sports.
She says it’s extremely hard to measure the level of concussion in living patients using current scanning technology, so the insights that come from the case could be extremely helpful.
“With Billy’s family being incredibly brave, and donating his brain – so that this can be identified… this is really a ground-breaking moment for New Zealand,” Professor Hume says.