Retired New Jersey teacher Holly Ulland and her son Aaron have always been extremely close. She described her son as “very compassionate, loves animals, was always a gambler”.
Young and capable, Aaron looked perfectly healthy, until one morning in January 2019.
“I woke up to use the bathroom and couldn’t get out of bed,” he told correspondent Susan Spencer. “I had to take something to get out of bed. And then I got my two feet on the floor and I just walked a few feet and fell down.”
Holly remembered, “I went for a walk down the hall, past his bedroom, I found him on the floor, but he said he couldn’t get up.”
“This must have been terrifying,” Spencer said.
“Yes,” Aaron replied.
At just 39, Aaron had suffered a stroke, paralyzing his left side. “He tried to talk to me,” Holly said. “But his words were all gurgling. And I was terrified he would never speak again.”
After four days in intensive care, he had regained his speech, but not much. He then spent two months in rehab. “We had a neurologist who told us that Aaron would never move his arm again. And when I got to the parking lot, I literally put his face in my hands and said, ‘Don’t even buy into to stay “.”
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According to Dr. Diana Tzeng, a professor of neurology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, a stroke occurs “whenever there is a problem with blood flow to the brain. The most common type is caused by a kind of blockage of an artery.”
Spencer asked, “In general, people assume that strokes only happen to the elderly. Is that so?”
“Anyone can have a stroke, even young people,” Tzeng said. “And there’s a worrying trend where there are more young adults suffering from strokes.”
Amazingly, an American has a stroke every 40 seconds, and 10 to 15 percent of stroke victims are only 18 to 49 years old. Why is this happening. “About 50 percent of the time, when a young person has a stroke, we can’t figure out the cause,” Tzeng said.
The cause of Aaron Ulland’s stroke is still a mystery, but the consequences are devastatingly clear.
Tzeng said: “There is no regeneration of brain cells. Once you have had a stroke, the brain cells that have been affected are dead. For some patients we offer intensive physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, but in terms of interventions that we can offer them to patients, but none to help them regain what they have lost. “
But Aaron is determined to regain what he lost, which is why he mastered a three-wheeled vehicle when he couldn’t ride a regular bicycle … and why he said yes to being one patient in a revolutionary study at Thomas University Jefferson.
His mother wasn’t so sure. When asked for her reaction when she was told “We will put electrodes in your son’s brain”, she replied: “Honestly, I was terrified. But I also knew it was Aaron’s decision. “
And he didn’t hesitate? “No,” said Holly. “He kept saying, ‘I want my arm back.'”
So, in October last year, with the cameras rolling, doctors implanted more electrodes in Aaron’s brain. It lasted nine hours.
Jefferson Health neurosurgeon Dr. Robert Rosenwasser, one of the study’s two lead doctors, said: “I repeated this hundreds of times before surgery to know how to do it, to know exactly where to put it.” .
Thomas Jefferson University Professor of Neurology, Dr. Mijail Serruya, the other principal physician, described the electrodes that were implanted: “The electrodes in this study are incredibly small, the size of a baby aspirin or a regular M&M, so smaller than a peanut M&M. And it simply enters the surface of the cortex, outside the brain. “
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The role of electrodes, said Rosenwasser, “is to record the electrical signals in his existing brain cells, to take those electrical signals and turn them into the movement he wants to make: move your fingers, move your hand, move your arm. “
In other words, Aaron’s stroke affected his brain-arm connection. These electrodes repair it, sending signals from its brain to a motorized actuator. And rape! Aaron can move his arm again!
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“He showed us that someone, almost two years ago after a fairly significant stroke, can regain function,” Serruya said.
And it’s just the beginning.
Spencer asked, “There are so many things we do that we take for granted, for example, we take a cup or he says he has trouble closing something because he can’t use that hand. How far do you think this technology can go in terms of recovering fine motor skills? “
“Well, I’m not sure I’ll be on this Earth to see him, but I think we’ll have people playing the piano and they’ll be concert violinists,” Rosenwasser said.
Aaron’s electrodes were only introduced for a three-month trial. But doctors see the day when – as a pacemaker – this technology will be wireless and implantable, completely eliminating the arm.
Serruya said: “I think this is the goal, that in the next five, 10, 15, 20 years we will have a medical device that will be available to people who have suffered a stroke so that they can go to the doctor, their neurosurgery team, get this device and, no matter how far they have come in their physical and occupational therapy, they can break through that plateau and continue and restore movement. “
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Spencer asked Aaron, “Do your doctors think this can change the game?”
“Yes. It will help other stroke victims and they can look at my stuff,” he replied. “Yes. My name is Pioneer.”
“Yes. Do you like that?”
“Yes!” he smiled.
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Story produced by Amiel Weisfogel. Editor: Carol Ross.