Brain Pacemaker Ends Arizona Artist's Tremors

Bill Daggett's hands are now steady enough to hold a carving knife.

The Arizona artist spent years unable to eat or leave his home because of severe tremors. A doctor spotted the shaking at an art show and urged him to get tested. The result was a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.

Daggett said the physical loss led to a mental retreat. "I couldn't even eat, hardly. I was shaking so bad, and I didn't want to go out anymore. That's part of the depression. You don't want to be seen when you can't hold a fork and get it to your mouth," he said.

Medication failed to control his symptoms. He then chose deep brain stimulation, a therapy that sends electrical pulses to the brain to stop tremors.

Sam Cradduck, a gerontologist and host of "Aging Untold," explained the procedure's function. "What they did was basically give his brain a pacemaker. You know, we're kind of accustomed to the thought of a pacemaker helping a heart keep rhythm. But this is a new way to go in and help that brain reset and send those electrical pulses out to give the brain the pacemaker to now reduce those tremors, reduce some of the side effects of the disease and the progression of it," Cradduck said.

Cradduck described the intervention as a quality of life breakthrough for people who have lived with the disease for years. He noted that the condition robs patients of more than just physical abilities. "We talk about the physical aspects of disease and aging all the time, but we forget to talk about the emotional loss, and that's where this guy was at. He was so connected with being the artist and being able to create, and the disease was robbing him of that. We see that it's robbing him of physical abilities maybe to eat, but we forget that it's robbing him of a piece of himself," Cradduck said.

Daggett has returned to his craft. The therapy has allowed him to resume the woodcarving he loved decades ago.