Insidious disease silently attacking a beautiful mind
NRL great Paul Green was suffering from a “severe form” of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a crippling brain disease linked to repeated head knocks at the time of his death.
Professor Michael Buckland, who examined Green’s brain, revealed the former rugby league star and Cowboys premiership-winning coach was suffering “a high stage” of CTE when he took his own life in August earlier this year.
Professor Buckland found an alarming build-up of a protein called tau, a sign of CTE, that had spread far and “deep” into the 49-year-old’s brain.
“Paul had one of the more severe forms of pure CTE we’ve seen,” Professor Buckland said.
“Paul had a build up of tau in pretty much every block of the brain cortex we looked at, which is unusual for someone of his age.
“There were 10 regions where it clearly fulfilled all the diagnostic criteria for CTE.” CTE can only be diagnosed after death.
Green’s sudden death rocked the rugby league world in August and there was an immense outpouring of grief following his shock passing.
Professor Buckland said upon examining Green’s brain in his laboratory at Australian Sports Brain Bank at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, he could see that Green had been living with CTE for “quite a while”.
The premiership-winning Cowboys coach, who played 162 games and won the Rothmans Medal, had a “high stage” grade of the brain disease, which also could be classified as “stage three” CTE. Professor Buckland said it could lead to impulsive behaviour and impaired judgment.
“My feeling is he would have been symptomatic for some time and he was a smart guy, a remarkable man, with a lot of diverse interests,” Buckland said. “I suspect he would have been coping with stuff he didn’t understand for quite a while. He didn’t have mental health problems; he just couldn’t control stuff that was going on in his head.”
After Green died suddenly, showing “no signs” of depression, in the midst of grief his wife Amanda agreed to donate his brain to Australian Sports Brain Bank which is managed by Professor Buckland.
Symptoms of CTE can also include; memory loss, poor cognitive function, mood and behaviour issues, many people develop depression and a significant number dementia.
No one can say exactly how may head knocks he suffered.
Professor Buckland praised Amanda Green for choosing to donate Paul’s brain in the midst of grief, and the family also asked for donations to be made to the ASBB in lieu of flowers raising nearly $30,000 for research.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT CTE AND THE AUSTRALIAN SPORTS BRAIN BANK, TO MAKE A FINANCIAL DONATION IN HONOUR OF PAUL GREEN, OR TO REGISTER TO DONATE YOUR BRAIN, VISIT: WWW.BRAINBANK.ORG.AU