This is another article by one time list member M.A.J. McKenna.
Copyright 1995 The Atlanta Constitution
HEALTH WATCH SPECIAL REPORT: PALLIDOTOMY; A chance for a normal life;
At Emory University School of Medicine and other medical centers around
the country, patients with Parkinson's disease are staking
their futures on a grueling and controversial procedure called
pallidotomy.; Choosing the operation is a difficult decision; while the
results can seem miraculous, there are significant risks. Since June,
staff writer; M.A.J. McKenna has followed a Georgia pallidotomy patient,
Charles Jarrett, as he prepared for, endured and recovered from the
dramatic operation; BEFORE THE OPERATION
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, October 11, 1995, Wednesday,
ALL EDITIONS HEALTH WATCH, Pg. 1B; 738 words
M.A.J. McKenna; STAFF WRITER
Tunnel Hill
The bulky blue armchair dominates the living room like an evil-tempered
house guest. The south-western-style couches have been shoved aside to
make way for it. Electrical cords from its internal motors snake across
the floor.
Charles Jarrett hates the chair.
Jarrett, 57, has Parkinson's disease, a disorder of the brain that
destroys a person's ability to control movement. He needs the chair to
stand up; its motorized gears slowly straighten out its well-cushioned
right angles, lifting a seated person effortlessly upright. It's a
useful piece of equipment, but for Jarrett, it's a reminder of
everything he has lost.
Jarrett so much misses the dancing, driving and golf he used to enjoy,
and so loathes the help he now requires for basic functions, that he has
decided to take a radical step. He as asked specialists at Emory
University School of Medicine to sink a hair-thin probe into his brain,
burning away the malfunctioning cells - an operation performed while he
is awake.
"It is scary, of course it's scary," he said. "But anything is better
than what I got."
Pallidotomy is not new - it was first tried in the 1940s - but recent
research has made it the best hope for some patients with long-standing
Parkinson's disease.
Parkinson's fools the brain into over-controlling the body's movements;
victims develop a fine trembling, move very slowly and sometimes freeze
in place. Drugs initially quell the symptoms but over time cause violent
side effects.
Jarrett has had the disorder since 1974. It forced him to retire six
years ago; the tics caused by the medications embarrassed him so much
that for several years he also stayed home from church. On his worst
days, the former Navy aviator and hospital billing manager cannot dress
himself, walk up stairs or turn over in bed.
"The worst is when parents hold their children away because they feel
there's something wrong with you," he said, in a voice that Parkinson's
has made soft and slurred but that sounds booming to him.
Pallidotomy, which doesn't cure the disease but does reduce its
symptoms, is very popular - and somewhat controversial. People magazine
devoted six pages to it; one TV network dubbed it a "medical miracle."
Yet it's revival is so new that doctors disagree on the best way to
perform the operation - and procedures that have gone badly, striking
the wrong areas of the brain, have left patients paralyzed, comatose and
partially blind.
Jarrett's operation at Emory could improve the procedure's odds. The
school is conducting the first federally funded study of the operation;
over the next few years, a team of neurologists, neurosurgeons and
support staff will follow the experience of 84 petients. (Emory also
performs the operation on patients who are not enrolled in the trial.)
"We know that pallidotomy improves symptoms and relieves the side
effects of medications," said Dr. Mahlon DeLong, Emory's chairman of
neurology and lead investigator of the trial. "But the questions are:
How long do the effects last? Will it alter the course of the disease?
Over the years, will some of the benefits be lost?"
The Emory team has done 91 pallidotomies, but there is no absolute
guarantee of success.
"Only a small percentage of people have a problem, but they really need
to be ready for it," said Dr. Jerrold Vitek, an Emory neurologist and
co-leader of the trial. "The risk is less than 5 percent - but if
it happens for them, it's 100 percent."
Jarrett believes he is prepared. His insurance has agreed to cover the
$ 30,000 cost, and he has discussed the odds with his wife, Rosie, 41,
a nurse at Hamilton Medical Center in Dalton.
He stayed home to care for his three stepkids while she returned to
school for her nursing degree. The support she has offered since he
became disabled is a partial payback.
"We knew from the beginning we wanted to do this," said Rosie Jarrett,
who learned of the operation from a newspaper clipping sent by a
friend. "It was just a question of whether he could get in the trial."
Jarrett is confident the operation will go well, and he is beginning
to lay plans for afterward. He wants to play with is 2-year-old
grandson, DeVon, who lives with them. He plans to work with kids
at his church. He would like to take his wife on vacation.
And one other thing:
"The first thing I'm going to do," he said, "is go the the Varsity
for a hot dog."
