When actor-musician Brad Carter was implanted with a brain pacemaker, he played his guitar during surgery to help his medical team gauge the best placement.
For Brad Carter, the loss was unbearable. The condition called essential tremor – uncontrollable shaking of the hands – had robbed him of his music. “It takes from you, little by little, who you are,” Carter says.
But he was determined to regain, and prolong, his life as an artist. In May 2013 Carter made history, strummming his guitar during his surgery while his brain pacemaker was implanted. All over the world, people watched the video coverage and marveled.
After surgery came the lengthy process of programming the pacemaker. But even before that was complete, Carter started making music again. He returned to UCLA to play – and to announce his new project, a record album.
Carter funded his album using Kickstarter, and that experience will be part of a full-length documentary called Kickstarted. Carter announced on his website that recording was completed in July 2014, and fans are eagerly awaiting the finished album.
““It feels bigger than me,” Carter says of his brain surgery/social media experience.”
An estimated 10 million people suffer from essential tremor, and Carter hopes more of them will learn about surgical options because of his willingness to share his story.
Dr. Nader Pouratian, director of UCLA’s Neurosurgical Movement Disorders Program and a leading expert on Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor, is pleased with the responses.
“I think for the most part – especially from the movement disorder community, people who suffer from these diseases – it’s been a resounding ’Thank you for letting us know about this, letting us come into the operating room and telling the world about this procedure,’” Pouratian says.
Patient strums guitar while surgeons implant brain pacemaker