He beat Parkinson, whom he met during his college years, with a brain battery.
According to Brain and Nerve Surgery Specialist Assoc. Dr Ali Zırh said: “Parkinson’s disease occurs when a substance called ‘dopamine’ in the brain becomes depleted. Trembling in the hands when ‘counting money’, slowing down in movements, not participating in the swinging of the arms and walking close to the body, more prominently on one side of the body; There are symptoms such as a dulling of the gaze and a decrease in facial expressions, a facial condition that can be expressed as ‘mask face’, walking with small steps and leaning forward. Parkinson’s disease is an advanced age disease and is usually seen in people over the age of 60. In 10 to 15 percent of patients, the age of onset of the disease is between 20 and 50 years.
“THE FIRST TIME A FATHER’S DAY WILL BE VERY DIFFERENT FOR ME”
Dastonbek Sultanov, who lives in Uzbekistan, met Parkinson at the age of 22. Sultanov, now 29 years old, an information technology teacher, described his changing life with Parkinson’s in these words:
“When I was a student, I had trouble taking notes. At that time the disease showed the first signs and after a while I learned that I had Parkinson’s. I met my beloved wife in college. He married me even though he knew about my illness. Thanks to him I have achieved a lot. It’s like a paradise garden sent to me. I am an information technology teacher. It is very important for me to speak loudly and be dynamic to say something. I could only do my job for two years. After a while I had to stop. Because I felt very weak, even my voice was not loud enough. My speech had changed, I couldn’t express myself properly and I couldn’t write. As time passed, my tremors began. The school board told me to leave. It was one of the hardest times of my life. I have three children. They all knew I had Parkinson’s. I couldn’t take care of them enough, I couldn’t play and I couldn’t hug them. For the first time a Father’s Day will be very different for me, I can’t wait to fully embrace them.”
“My LIFE WAS MIXED BY PARKINSON”
Sultanov, who came to Istanbul for treatment, said: “My life was complicated by Parkinson’s disease. I came to Istanbul for treatment. We spoke with my doctor and as a result of the necessary evaluations he said that I was a suitable patient for a brain pacemaker, and my surgery process began. I felt very good after the operation. Now I want to get everything back on track. I want to hug my kids and play games. I am in a good mood and motivated, now I have a ticket to go back to my old life. I want to thank my doctor, Mr. Ali, and the whole team. They’re good,” he said.
“WE DO THE SURGERY BY TALK TO THE PATIENT AND KEEP THE PATIENT AWARENESS”
Claiming that the brain battery surgeries are performed while the patient is awake and talking, Assoc. Dr Zırh said: “Brain batteries are devices that can deliver electrical current to any point in the human brain, stimulating or suppressing electrical activity in the brain cells in the area where the electrical current is delivered. Brain pacemaker implantation surgery, which takes about 3-3.5 hours, is performed with the patient’s consciousness open, following the principle of ‘talk-to-talk surgery’. The goal of keeping the patient awake during surgery is to locate the cells responsible for the disease and the anatomical formations around them. For this reason, we do the operation, we keep the patient awake, we talk to each other. This makes it very easy to determine the physiological map of the area in the brain to be reached. That is when the first moment of well-being and good feeling begins that patients feel during the placement of the pacemaker electrodes in the brain. Dastonbek Sultanov, who came from Uzbekistan, was a patient of ours who came into contact with Parkinson’s at a very young age. When we saw and evaluated him, we didn’t get enough response from the medical treatment and we performed brain pacemaker implantation surgery. After the battery programming process, which took about 2-3 weeks after surgery, we graduated our patient. It made us all very happy to be able to make it through the days he missed with his kids. Happy Father’s Day to him and all fathers.
