Dr. Jamie Toms, neurosurgery, Ochsner LSU Health
April is Parkinson’s Awareness month. Below you will find a fully written story on Parkinson’s Disease and a surgery being done by Dr. Jamie Toms of Ochsner LSU Health that is giving patients a life without the telltale tremor. There are six available soundbites (verbatim is in the story), two specifically on Parkinson’s and the rest about the tremor surgery, along with enough b-roll to either make a package or split the content for use on different newscasts/days, including VO of a patient before/after surgery.
SHREVEPORT, La. – Parkinson’s disease is a movement disorder caused by nerve cell damage in the brain that causes dopamine levels to drop. Those chemical changes in the brain can affect patients in numerous ways.
“People's voices get quieter, and they talk quieter and their writing gets smaller. And it's kind of a disease where everything that you do just kind of seems like you're getting smaller,” said Dr. Jamie Toms, a neurosurgeon with Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport. “I say it's a little bit like Alice in Wonderland when she eats the mushroom and she gets really small. And then we, a lot of times, give them medicine and they feel really big. And they would rather feel that bigness than they would the smallness.”
Parkinson’s is a degenerative disease, meaning it gets progressively worse over time. Toms says there are some early symptoms aside from the telltale tremor.
“Stiffness, realizing you're having trouble walking, masked face — sometimes people lose some of the emotions that they have in their face. That's actually a very common symptom,” Toms said. “Lack of an arm swing, which sounds interesting, but you some you notice someone isn't swinging their arms when they walk.”
Toms is the only neurosurgeon in the north Louisiana area who performs a life-changing procedure which can get rid of tremors for patients with movement disorders, including Parkinson’s. It is called Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS).
“We put electrodes into the brain, these little wires, they're about the size of a coffee straw, and we put them into those structures of the brain that are involved in the disease. And then they get a battery pack, which is, everything's under the skin. They get a battery pack much like a pacemaker, and it's like a pacemaker for the brain,” explained Toms. “So, it stimulates that part of the brain and allows it to bypass the part of the brain that isn't working properly.”
So, how effective is the procedure?
“It can make their walking better, it can make their movement better. It can get rid of tremor,” Toms said. “It usually improves Parkinson's disease about 60%. Other diseases like a central tremor and things like that we can get 80%, sometimes 100% of their tremor to go away.”
Toms says after the DBS procedure patients typically spend one night in the hospital and then go home. There are also a few minor outpatient procedures to program the device. After that, patients are free to live their lives.
“I had somebody who had a tremor for 15 years tell me, tearfully tell me he was going to go home and he was going to have a steak tonight and he was going to cut it himself — the first time he's cut his own food in 15 years,” said Toms. “So, it is definitely life changing.”
For those suffering from movement disorder-related tremor, Dr. Toms highly recommends this surgery.
“I don't ever try to talk anyone into having surgery. But this is one that I would greatly encourage someone to have if they're having these symptoms, because it definitely can give somebody back their life.”
Dr. Jamie Toms sees patients in two locations: At the Ochsner LSU Health - Neurosurgery Center at 945 Margaret Place, Suite 100 in Shreveport and at the Ochsner LSU Health - Viking Drive Multi-specialty Center at 4481 Viking Drive in Bossier City. For more information, please visit https://www.ochsnerlsuhs.org/services-departments/movement-disorders
###
ABOUT OCHSNER LSU HEALTH
The Ochsner LSU Health System of North Louisiana (Ochsner LSU Health) is a partnership between Ochsner Health, the largest health system in the state of Louisiana, and LSU Health Shreveport, which includes the School of Medicine and Health Sciences Center. Ochsner LSU Health provides healthcare to more than 140,000 patients across North Louisiana. With more than 20 locations, Ochsner LSU Health includes multiple outpatient facilities, clinics, three acute care hospitals — including North Louisiana’s only Level 1 Trauma Center and Level II Pediatric Trauma Center at its 407-bed hospital and a 153-bed hospital with women's and children's services in Shreveport, La. and a 244-bed hospital in Monroe, La designated as a Level III Trauma Program — as well as Louisiana Behavioral Health, providing inpatient and intensive outpatient mental health services in partnership with Oceans Healthcare. The system has more than 4,600 employees that work alongside the Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport Physician Group of nearly 500 physicians in more than 70 specialties and subspecialties.
RSS