It’s great to be myself again

Dec 27 2007 By Lizzie Struthers

TOM Miller has his bionic brain to thank for allowing him to enjoy Christmas, drive to the shops or go fishing.

The 61-year-old, who has Parkinson’s Disease, is learning to do things he thought he had given up for good years ago.

Tom, of Hurlford, had a ‘deep brain stimulation’ operation a year ago where surgeons drilled into his skull to embed two electrodes linked to a battery pack in his body. These electrodes send low voltage pulses to help reduce the spasms caused by Parkinson’s.

The £20,000 operation was part of a medical trial being carried out by Birmingham University.

Tom, a former building surveyor, opted for the revolutionary surgery after the drugs treating his condition were no longer having any effect.

He said: “I was taking 24 tablets a day and injections but I could hardly move about. On bad days, I couldn’t get out of my bed or chair.

“Since the operation, I only take three pills a day and I don’t have tremors.”

Tom has put on two stone in weight because he no longer constantly shakes. And he is back behind the driver’s wheel for the first time in five years.

Tom and his partner and full-time carer Nancy Gough can now go out together shopping or for a meal.

Tom added: “The operation is not a miracle cure. I’m slow, get tired easily and have back pain.”

The dad-of-two lay awake on the operating table in Southern General Hospital, Glasgow, as he had millimetre thick electrodes implanted into his brain under a local anaesthetic. The electrodes are wired up to a battery pack in his chest, just like a pacemaker.

Although Tom’s surgery was a success, a post-operative infection saw him spend two weeks critically ill in hospital last Christmas and New Year. Surgeons threatened to remove the implant when his condition seemed to worsen.

Tom said: “It was a very worrying time but I came through it all. I wouldn’t be without my electrodes now.”

Doctors are pleased with Tom’s progress. He has been given a device with which he can adjust the voltage on the electrodes.

Said Tom: “I’m more or less the man I once was.”