Waging Parkinson's war

Published: 3/18/2012 7:57 PM | Last update: 3/18/2012 11:25 PM

(Sandra J. Milburn/The Hutchinson News) Only a few months ago, Gary Hughes, who has Parkinsons disease, could not walk without a walker, a wheelchair or sometimes a cane. But now he can walk up and down stairs at home without help.

If he needed to use the restroom during the night, the 64-year-old Hutchinson resident crawled there, rather than risk a fall.

"I was not able to walk without falling down," Hughes said. "I fell down a lot. I had to use a walker, and a wheelchair, sometimes a laser cane."

"Now I can walk and I don't use any assistive devices."

Hughes received a new, though temporary, lease on life through deep brain surgery, where electronic probes were inserted through the top of his head to near his spinal cortex.

The probes are stimulated by an electronic pulse or neurotransmitter implanted in his chest.

It's not a cure, Hughes said, but it may give him 5 to 10 years before the symptoms of the disease return in force.

It's a surgery that can't benefit everyone with Parkinson's, but it has had remarkable results for Hughes, who founded a local Parkinson's support group in Hutchinson in 2010.

Debilitating disease

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Waging Parkinson's war