John Carson has been living with Parkinson’s disease for 23 years. He had Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery in 2017. 

“The change was immediate,” said John’s wife Glenda. “John’s tremor completely stopped, and his quality of life improved immensely.” 

“Unfortunately, John’s health deteriorated, and he had to be placed in an aged care facility. Two of his carers were very willing to learn how to manage the DBS and organised regular recharging every second or third day.” 

All went smoothly for 12 months, until Glenda was invited to go away on a bike ride in New Zealand. In her absence, over an Australia Day long weekend, the DBS unit was unintentionally switched off. 

“John immediately began violently shaking. In my absence, the aged care facility called John’s doctor and over the phone he prescribed Diazepam to be administered four times per day,” said Glenda.   

During this time, the aged care unit’s carers who usually supported John were unavailable due to leave. 

They were unable to contact the manufacturer of the DBS device due to the long weekend.  

John’s tremor disappeared and due to the medication, he appeared to be completely relaxed and sound asleep. 

Jody Lloyd, Parkinson’s Specialist Nurse, meanwhile returned from leave and found several anxious messages from Glenda and received a call from their son.  

Jody was quickly able to diagnose the issue, called an ambulance and accompanied John to  hospital. She also contacted Glenda to tell her John was in a coma and had been admitted to hospital in a critical condition. Then Jody was able to contact the DBS manufacturer so his stimulator unit could be turned back on. Within a relatively short time he recovered. 

“John has no memory of the incident, and we saw no point in blaming anyone provided they agreed to facilitating some form of education and awareness of Parkinson’s and DBS. This resulted in so many people becoming aware of the really valuable resource they have available to them from a Parkinson’s nurse.”

“It was just a perfect storm of circumstances. However, it is not something I would wish on anybody, and we thank Jody for coming in as soon as she as was advised of John’s situation and quickly diagnosing and resolving the issue.”