Most times you read about a ‘cure’ in the news, you’ll find out towards the end of the story that it’s just a ‘potential’ cure, or that someone has been ‘seemingly cured.’
But from Palm Beach, Florida comes the story that 72-year-old Orlando Avendaño has been cured of his essential hand tremor, and we can also say the cure, which took just a few hours, was fully covered by Medicare.
Avendaño has lived with the hand tremor for more than 30 years, and basic fine motor movements like writing his name or eating with a fork are beyond him. Picking up a cup of water has to be done with both hands, and he prefers to eat with a big spoon at dinnertime because he can better disguise his tremor that way.
The Delray Medical Center however can remove an essential hand tremor using targeted ultrasound, a procedure already approved and available around the US. It uses the same high-frequency sound waves that bats use for echolocation, and that an OBGYN uses to image a fetus.
At Delray, the ultrasound is turned into a weapon through a piece of headgear called Neuravive that can deliver precise applications of ultrasonic waves into any part of the brain.
Developed by Insightec, the headgear is guided in conjunction with magnetic resonance imaging, and, as well as being covered by Medicare, is also covered in 22 different Blue Cross Blue Shield plans.
Avendaño arrived at Delray in the early morning for his procedure. He was equipped with the headgear and was placed in an MRI machine where neurosurgeon Dr. Lloyd Zucker was able to detect the exact spot in the brain where the tremor originated.
The cutting-edge technology then created a small lesion in the brain which “knocked out” the tremor.
Without the need for surgery or anesthesia, and after just a few hours, Avendaño emerged and held up his hand: stiff as a board.
“Oh my God, it’s unbelievable,” he said after coming out.
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Captured on camera by NBC 6, it was difficult to tell who was happier, Avendaño or Dr. Zucker, who called the procedure his “magic trick.”
“It’s probably the most wonderful thing. I’ve been doing it for years, and as you can see as I start to smile, you can’t take this away, when you see the patients and the families and what it does for them,” he said.
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“He’ll go home, and he’s going to sit there tonight at dinner, and all those things he couldn’t do, he’s gonna be doing. How do you put an adjective on that one? You can’t.”
There are 79 centers in the country where this procedure is done and fully covered by Medicare.
WATCH The story below from NBC 6…
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