Deep brain stimulation surgery allows artist to return to woodcarving

PHOENIX. Ariz. (Aging Untold) — Bill Daggett fell in love with woodcarving decades ago. Then the shaking started.

What doctor saw at an art show saw

A doctor at an art show noticed Daggett’s tremors and urged him to get checked. The diagnosis was Parkinson’s disease.

“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,” Daggett said.

Choosing deep brain stimulation

When medication was not enough, the Arizona artist chose deep brain stimulation, or DBS. The therapy sends electrical pulses to the brain to stop tremors.

Daggett’s hands are now steady as he carves.

Sam Cradduck, a gerontologist and host of “Aging Untold,” compared the therapy to a pacemaker.

“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.

‘Quality of life’ breakthrough

Cradduck said DBS is a “quality of life” breakthrough for people who have lived with the disease for years.

“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.

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