Life-changing surgery allows Phoenix artist to create again
Sculptor Bill Daggett underwent deep brain stimulation which calmed tremors caused by Parkinson’s disease
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A 79-year-old Phoenix man has reignited a passion thanks to what he calls a medical miracle.
Artist Bill Daggett fell in love at a young age, but it wasn’t with a junior high crush. “I used to walk to school at my grade school and I’d walk by this artist resident and he would always be carving in his patio and inside the house and I stopped and looked at it and said, ‘Oh my God,’” he said.
Daggett was hooked. He developed his sculpting skills over the years and people started to notice. “I’m getting some advice from, from some very good friends that are artists,” he remembered. “They said you need to be in the show.”
It was at one of those art shows that a doctor noticed Daggett’s hands shaking. Daggett visited doctors at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, who confirmed he had Parkinson’s disease.
Dr. Francisco Ponce is part of a team of people caring for Daggett. “With Mr. Daggett, he had what many patients experience, both tremors that were not responding to medication as well as really significant, severe side effects from medications,” he said.
Dr. Ponce called that a double whammy that made Daggett a good candidate for what’s called deep brain stimulation surgery, or DBS.
It’s a pacemaker for the brain that once surgically inserted, sends electrical pulses to stop tremors. “Mr. Daggett was an artist who was not able to perform his art before because of these tremors,” Dr. Ponce said. “Once he had this in place and the neurologist activated the system, his symptoms were being controlled.”
“It’s magic. It was a miracle,” Daggett said. He started up that love he found in grade school again, using his now steadier hands to create incredible pieces of art out of twisted juniper.
He also reclaimed simpler parts of his life. “I couldn’t even eat hardly. I was shaking so bad and I didn’t want to go out anymore. That’s part of the depression. You don’t want to be seen when you can’t hold a fork and get it to your mouth,” Daggett said.
Now he has his confidence back thanks to his DBS surgery. He’s using his new lease on life to give pieces of wood a new life. He also said in a couple of weeks, he’s going to give golfing a try again.
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