Meet a pioneer in stroke recovery

Retired New Jersey teacher Holly Ulland and her son Aaron have always been exceptionally close. He described his son as “very compassionate, loves animals, has always been a firecracker”.

Young and capable, Aaron looked perfectly healthy, until one January morning in 2019.

“I woke up to use the bathroom and couldn’t get out of bed,” correspondent Susan Spencer told reporters. “I had to grab something to get out of my bed. And then I got my two feet on the ground and walked just a few feet and fell.”

Holly recalled, “I went down the hall, going through her bedroom, I found her on the floor, but she said she couldn’t get up.”

“That must have been terrifying,” Spencer said.

“Yes,” Aaron replied.

At just 39, Aaron had suffered a paralyzing stroke on his left side. “He tried to talk to me,” Holly said. “But his words were all laughed at. And it scared me that he would never speak again.”

After four days in the ICU, he had recovered his speech, but not much else. He then spent two months in rehab. “We had a neurologist who told us that Aaron would never move his arm again. And when we got to the parking lot, I literally put his face in my hands and said, ‘Don’t even buy this.’ .

According to Dr. Diana Tzeng, a professor of neurology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, a stroke “occurs whenever there is a problem with blood flow to the brain. The most common type is caused by some type of blockage of an artery. “.

Spencer asked, “In general, people assume that strokes only happen to the elderly. Is that so?”

“Everyone can have a stroke, even young people,” Tzeng said. “And there’s a worrying trend where more young adults are suffering from stroke.”

Surprisingly, an American has a stroke every 40 seconds, and 10 to 15 percent of stroke victims are only 18 to 49 years old. Why is this happening. “About 50% of the time, when a young person has a stroke we can’t figure out the cause,” Tzeng said.

The cause of Aaron Ulland’s stroke is still a mystery, but the consequences are devastating.

Tzeng said: “There is no regeneration of brain cells. Once you have had a stroke, the affected brain cells are dead. For some patients we offer intensive physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, but in direct terms interventions. that we can provide to patients, though none to help them regain what they have lost. “

But Aaron is determined to regain what he has lost, which is why he mastered all three wheels when he couldn’t ride a normal bike … and why he said yes to being the first patient in a revolutionary study of the Thomas Jefferson University.

Her mother was not so sure. When asked her reaction when she was told “we’ll put electrodes in her son’s brain,” she replied, “Honestly, I was terrified. But I also knew it was Aaron’s decision.”

And he didn’t hesitate? “No,” Holly said. “He kept saying, ‘I want my arm back.’

So last October, with cameras rolling, doctors implanted several electrodes in Aaron’s brain. It took nine hours.

Jefferson Health doctor of neurosurgery Robert Rosenwasser, one of the study’s two top doctors, said: “We tested it hundreds of times before surgery to find out how we would do it, to know exactly where we would put it.”

Thomas Jefferson University Professor of Neurology, Dr. Mijail Serruya, the other chief physician, described the electrodes that were implanted: “The electrodes in this study are incredibly small, about the size of a child aspirin or a normal M&M, so they are more smaller than a peanut M&M And they only enter the surface of the crust, outside the brain.

The role of electrodes, Rosenwasser said, “is to record the electrical signals from your existing brain cells, take those electrical signals and turn them into the movement you want to make: move your fingers, move your hand, move your arm. . “

In other words, Aaron’s blow damaged the connection between the brain and the arm. These electrodes repair it, sending signals from your brain to a motorized device. I purple! Aaron can move his arm again.

“It has shown us that someone, almost two years after a fairly major stroke, can regain function,” Serruya said.

And that’s just the beginning.

Spencer asked, “There are so many things we do that we take for granted altogether, for example, pick up a cup or said you have trouble compressing anything because you can’t use that hand. To what extent do you think this technology can it work in terms of recovering people’s fine motor skills? ”

“Well, I’m not sure I’ll be on this Earth to see it, but I think we’ll have people playing the piano and being concert violinists,” Rosenwasser said.

Aaron’s electrodes were placed only for a three-month test. But doctors see the day when, like a pacemaker, this technology will be wireless and implantable, removing the arm from the arm completely.

Serruya said: “I think this is the goal, that in the next five, 10, 15, 20 years we have a medical device that will be available to people who have had a stroke so they can go to their doctor, the their neurosurgery team, they get this device and, no matter how much they have achieved their physical and occupational therapy, they can cross that plateau and move on and restore movement. “

Spencer asked Aaron, “Do your doctors think this can change the game?”

“Yes, it will help other stroke victims and they can look at my things,” he replied. “Yes. They call me the pioneer.”

“Yeah, do you like that?”

“Yes!” he smiled.

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Story produced by Amiel Weisfogel. Editor: Carol Ross.