A Pilot’s Journey: How Deep Brain Stimulation Brought Hope Amid Parkinson’s Disease
A pilot for nearly three decades, Greg Smith never thought lower back pain would lead to a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease.
“Hard to walk. Hard to stand up. Very uncomfortable,” Greg says.
He went to see Corneliu Luca, M.D., Ph.D., a neurologist and Parkinson’s expert at UHealth, the University of Miami Health System. When Greg’s medications stopped working, Dr. Luca offered him Deep Brain Stimulation or DBS.
“Deep brain stimulation is a surgical procedure that entails insertion of a wire in the brain in order to modulate abnormal circuits. By delivering electricity to the brain, we can restore the normal function of the brain. We can decrease the tremors, we can decrease the bradykinesia and the stiffness,” Dr. Luca says.
Until Deep Brain Stimulation, Greg was on 17 pills a day. Now he’s down to two with fewer symptoms. And the future of DBS technology is promising an even better quality of life for patients.
UHealth is at the forefront of adaptive DBS technology
“With this new technology that’s called adaptive DBS, we can really adjust the stimulation up and down based on patient needs. At night they feel okay and don’t need a lot of stimulation. But during the day when they exercise, they will require more stimulation. We will have the ability to adjust the stimulation in an automatic way that will improve the quality of life of the patient,” says Dr. Luca.
“My sleep pattern has changed. I’ve got better sleep. My mood swings decreased drastically, the mood swings. My mobility, I was able to move a lot better. Just basically from tying my shoes to putting on my belt improved,” Greg says.
“At the University of Miami, we are one of the first centers to pioneer this method,” Dr. Luca says.
Greg is now maintaining planes and is grateful for getting his life back.
“Thank you very much, Dr. Luca, and the rest of the staff at the University of Miami,” says Greg.
Video transcript compiled by Janna Ross for ‘Focusing on You: Innovations in Modern Medicine,’ a series of healthcare-related stories airing regularly on WPLG Local 10. For more stories like this one, visit UHealth’s YouTube channel.
Tags: DBS, deep brain stimulation, Dr. Corneliu Luca, focusing on you, neurologist, Parkinson’s Disease
