For Ramon Montalvo, living with Parkinson’s disease had turned everyday tasks into constant challenges. Tremors made simple movements difficult, and the moments he most wanted, like playing with his young daughter, felt increasingly out of reach.
That changed after a Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) procedure at University Medical Center of El Paso, performed by Dr. Harold Smith at UMC Healthcare Partners’ Nexus Neuroscience.
The results were immediate and life-altering.
“I felt it right away when she told me if I felt any different, and my right arm all of a sudden stopped,” Montalvo recalled. Overcome with emotion, he described how the procedure gave him back what he missed most: the ability to share joyful moments with his daughter. “I feel great, my arms and my tremors are just completely gone,” he added.
For Dr. Smith, seeing such a dramatic improvement in Montalvo’s quality of life was a powerful reminder of why he became a neurosurgeon. “To see how life-changing it can be, it makes all the struggling and learning how to do it years ago, and staying up with the latest developments, it makes all that work worth it to see somebody who improves that much,” he said.
Although DBS has been used for years to treat movement disorders, recent technological advances have made it more precise and effective than ever.
“The actual device can transmit to us what is going on inside the brain. I never saw that coming, the tech can sit there with her bluetooth and talk to it, and the device says, ‘this is what’s going on inside there,’ we never had that before,” Dr. Smith explained.
UMC El Paso and UMC Healthcare Partners remain committed to providing advanced, life-changing neurosurgical care in the El Paso region, helping patients like Montalvo regain independence, mobility, and hope.
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