Woman, 65, Plays Clarinet During Brain Surgery After Parkinson’s Disease Left Her Unable to Use ‘Beloved’ Instrument

Denise Bacon, from the U.K. town of Crow­bor­ough, played her beloved instru­ment as she under­went deep brain stim­u­la­tion (DPS) on July 16 of this year

Denise Bacon, 65, from Crow­bor­ough in East Sus­sex, under­went a four-hour deep brain stim­u­la­tion (DBS) pro­ce­dure on July 16, allow­ing sur­geons to implant elec­trodes in her brain to help con­trol her symp­toms.

DBS involves insert­ing elec­trodes into tar­get­ed brain regions to deliv­er mild elec­tri­cal impuls­es that reg­u­late abnor­mal activ­i­ty. A small device implant­ed in the chest — sim­i­lar to a pace­mak­er — con­trols the stim­u­la­tion lev­els.

Bacon, a retired speech and lan­guage ther­a­pist and life­long clar­inetist, was diag­nosed with Parkinson’s in 2014. The con­di­tion had grad­u­al­ly affect­ed her abil­i­ty to play, as well as to walk, swim, and dance.

Dur­ing surgery, which was per­formed under local anes­the­sia to keep her awake, Bacon played her clar­inet so sur­geons could instant­ly assess improve­ments in her motor con­trol. Accord­ing to King’s Col­lege Hos­pi­tal, “The move­ment in Denise’s fin­gers improved imme­di­ate­ly, allow­ing her to play the clar­inet with much greater ease.”

Pro­fes­sor Key­oumars Ashkan, who led the oper­a­tion, said the team made two small open­ings “half the size of a five-pence piece” in her skull to insert the elec­trodes. “Once stim­u­la­tion was deliv­ered to the brain, there was an imme­di­ate improve­ment in her hand move­ments and abil­i­ty to play,” he said.

Bacon said she was “delight­ed” with the results. “I remem­ber my right hand being able to move with much more ease once the stim­u­la­tion was applied. I’m already expe­ri­enc­ing improve­ments in my walk­ing, and I’m keen to get back in the pool and on the dance floor.”

Her recharge­able pulse gen­er­a­tor, implant­ed in her chest, can last up to 20 years and auto­mat­i­cal­ly adjusts stim­u­la­tion as need­ed.

While DBS can’t cure Parkinson’s or stop its pro­gres­sion, it can sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce symp­toms such as tremors, stiff­ness, and slowed move­ment, improv­ing patients’ qual­i­ty of life.