Tourette's Patient Hopes Surgery Holds Cure
Nov. 11, 2004
Ed Yeates Reporting

Imagine muscle spasms so bad it's like doing uncontrollable,
exhausting high impact aerobics 24 hours a day. That's what a Utah
man is going through right now - and why a Cleveland hospital wants
to try an experimental procedure that just might cure him.

If I was in Peter Jensen's shoes right now, I might suddenly, and
without warning, break into violent muscle movements. The spasms
coming through my voice would also make it so I could no longer talk
to you.

Peter Jensen's physical and vocal tics are so bad, so continuous, he
sweats profusely. He wears loose clothes and no shoes, trying to
keep his body from overheating -- even going out on the patio in the
winter to cool down.

Peter Jensen: "I'm gone by the end of the day. I mean I have a
headache. It's just so overwhelming."

Peter has Tourette Syndrome, one of the worst cases Dr. Jason North
has ever seen. Though this young 29-year old father of four is
trying to finish school, he can't hold onto a job to support his
family.

Peter Jensen: "Constant effort to get each word out, to just talk."

Tourette Syndrome produces a chemical overload of signals in the
brain. The body can't handle them and goes into spasm. One minute
you're talking and functioning normally, the next you're not.

Peter weighs only 118 pounds right now because in between trying to
control the tics and eat, by the time he's finished he's lost his
appetite.

Earlier this year, surgeons at University Hospital in Cleveland,
Ohio, performed an experimental surgery on Tourette victim Jeff
Matovic. They implanted electrodes deep inside his brain, connecting
them under the skin to pacemaker devices on each side of the upper
chest.

After the surgery Jeff was 85 to 90 percent tic free. For the first
time he could walk and sit in a chair. When Peter saw what
happened..

Peter Jensen: "Honestly, I wept. I was so overcome that I wept."

Now, pending FDA approval, Peter could become only a handful of
Tourette patients in the United States to undergo the same
experimental surgery.

Peter Jensen: "I think that would be a wonderful thing."

Roshana Jensen, Peter's Wife: "It's going to be a pretty incredible
change when it does happen."

Dr. North says it's only a matter of time now until Peter's body
wears out. His options are running out.

Dr. North: "This is pretty much the last straw."

Peter's friends are trying to raise $100,000 to help him get the
Cleveland experiment. So far, they've raised about $30,000.


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