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ARTICLE: Healthy in Houston: Treating Parkinson's Disease
Updated: 5/14/2004 3:55:04 PM
By: Kristi Nakamura

A neurotransmitter can help stop the shakes many Parkinson's Disease sufferers experience.
Gerry Saladino used to love to fish and take care of his boat. Then one day he noticed some disturbing symptoms.

"Everybody kept saying, 'What's the matter, did you hurt your foot or something?' I'd say, 'No', and they would say
'What are you dragging your leg for?' 'I am dragging my leg?' I never noticed it. Just small symptoms like that. My
handwriting started to deteriorate," said Saladino.

Doctors diagnosed Saladino with Parkinson's Disease. Over time, his hands began to shake uncontrollably, and he
sometimes needed a wheelchair to get around.

"It was a last resort. It was the absolute last thing I could think of to -- what procedure to have done that was going
to work," said Saladino.

That last resort was a neurotransmitter implanted under the skin to stop the tremors and other debilitating symptoms of
Parkinson's Disease.

Doctors say normally two neurotransmitters have to be implanted and hooked up to provide stimulation to a certain area
of the brain. But a new device allows surgeons to implant just one neurotransmitter that can hook up to both sides.

"When we connect the wires up underneath the skin, we have to make tracks underneath the skin. These are areas that can
be sore. Instead of having two tracks, they'll have one," said Dr. Richard Simpson, with the Baylor College of
Medicine.

"It was absolutely phenomenal. I didn't shake. I could get up and walk a little bit, you know, and get around and not
fall down. And it was just absolutely amazing. My handwriting improved somewhat," said Saladino.

Saladino says the device is miracle he was looking for.

The National Institutes of Health estimate about 50,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease each year.