Group -
The following article appeared in last night's edition of my local newspaper.
I thought some of you mind find it interesting. Although it was well-written,
it seems to end rather abruptly.
Jim
START*****
Parkinson's patient gets story told on TV
by M. Catherine Callahan
Daily News staff
NEWPORT - Jim Finn has heard plenty of pig jokes since he underwent an
experimental -
and controversial - procedure designed to control the tremors, imbalance,
speech difficulty,
fatigue and other symptoms of the Parkinson's disease that have plagued him
for 18 years.
In September 1996, a hole was drilled in Finn's skull and fetal pig cells
were
injected into his brain. One of just 12 Parkinson's patients in the world to
undergo the
procedure, Finn will be featured on TV Sunday night during a segment of "60
Minutes."
"I'm a ham at heart ...now even more so," Finn said, smiling and tapping the
small
scar on the right side of his head.
He is anxious to see how the procedure, developed by Genzyme Diacrin Co. of
Cambridge, Mass., is depicted on network television. Finn says he hopes the
portrayal is
positive, as he has improved significantly and has regained some of his
independence.
"I'm still improving ...it's very exciting," Finn said.
But the surgery has been banned in England, he said, because that country's
outbreak of Mad Cow Disease has fueled concerns about animal viruses being
transmitted
to humans. Animal rights advocates also are strongly opposed to the
procedure, a position
that annoys Finn.
"People have to live on this planet too," he said during an interview in his
home on
Potter Street. "It's not just for furry little creatures."
His life was changed forever when he was diagnosed at 32 with Parkinson's
disease, a crippling and progressive neurological ailment. His symptoms
included a rigid
gait that made walking difficult, problems with speech and handwriting,
tremors and extreme
fatigue.
Finn, now 50, continued his job as an electronics repairman, but after three
or four
years his fine motor skills had deteriorated to the point where he couldn't
continue to work
on the small circuit panels of the TVs and the VCRs that he fixed. He tried
to fill the hours
working on the Triumph TR-7 that he had restored, but that work became more
and more
difficult for him.
"Anything that involved fine motor skills was just about impossible," Finn
said.
He sought treatment in Boston in 1986 from Dr. Robert G. Feldman, chief of
neurology at Boston Medical Center.
The Parkinson's progressed rapidly despite the various medications Feldman
prescribed to try to manage Finn's tremors and other symptoms. His days
increasingly were
marked by exhaustion and frustration, Finn said.
"I was to the point of committing suicide," he said.
"I had to crawl on my hands and knees from room to room. I couldn't button a
button on my shirt. I couldn't cut the food on my plate."
"I told (Feldman) that I had reached the end of the line, that I had had it."
In June 1996, Feldman introduced Finn to Dr. Samuel Ellias, a professor of
neurology at Boston University and the contact between Boston Medical Center
and the
Genzyme Diacrin Co.
Ellias invited Finn to participate in a medical safety test involving the
injection of
brain cells taken from aborted pigs into the human brain. Finn accepted.
"It was an act of desperation," he said.
Three months later, after a battery of neurological and psychological tests,
Finn
underwent the procedure at the Lahey-Hitchcock Clinic in Burlington, Mass.
A steel frame was bolted to his head to keep him immobile, and Finn was given
a
sedative to help him to relax. A local anesthetic was injected into Finn's
head and a small
hole was bored through the right, front of his skull.
Then a syringe of fetal pig brain cells was injected into the right
hemisphere of
Finn's brain.
"You're awake for this operation, by the way," he reported. "You have to
talk to the
doctor while it's going on because if they hit the wrong nerve you're in
trouble."
Remarkably, Finn was discharged the next morning. He felt well on the drive
back
to Newport, but soon developed an excruciating headache that lasted for nearly
a week.
____________________________
Caption for picture on page 1: Jim Finn, 50, of Newport will be included in a
"60 Minutes"
segment about an unusual treatment for Parkinson's disease. The story is
scheduled to air
Sunday.
Caption for picture on page 12: Newporter Jim Finn is one of just 12 people
to undergo an
experimental treatment of Parkinson's disease which involves the injection of
pig cells into a
patient's brain to control symptoms.
END***
