This is a straight-forward piece about a medical procedure--deep brain stimulation. It starts with a brief portrait of a local DJ diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and then follows him to the hospital, and through the operation. There are parts of this piece that appeal to my voyeuristic streak, since a large part of it is in the operating room with the patient. The sound of the drill going into his head is excruciatingly real. The image I had listening to it of Osef (the patient) hearing that sound while he's being operated on made me cringe! The doctor who explains what he's doing while he's drilling and doing his job is great, and the interactions of when they are doing the stimulation testing is great before the operation, but goes into a little too much detail afterwards. The intriguing part of this operation is that the doctors don't really know what they're doing when they go it. They depend on the patient to guide them as they go along. I personally find this aspect fascinating: the human side of the medical world, that doctor’s are not all-knowing. But this was not explored, since this is really a basic portrait of the procedure (first this happens, then that). Frankly, there could have been a lot less of the post-operation diagnostics, that went on for about 5 minutes in the middle of the piece. Not a bad exploration of a procedure, but it could have been cut in half.
Review of Deep Brain Stimulation
Sarah Elzas
Posted on May 18, 2005 at 10:44 AM
This is a straight-forward piece about a medical procedure--deep brain stimulation. It starts with a brief portrait of a local DJ diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and then follows him to the hospital, and through the operation. There are parts of this piece that appeal to my voyeuristic streak, since a large part of it is in the operating room with the patient. The sound of the drill going into his head is excruciatingly real. The image I had listening to it of Osef (the patient) hearing that sound while he's being operated on made me cringe! The doctor who explains what he's doing while he's drilling and doing his job is great, and the interactions of when they are doing the stimulation testing is great before the operation, but goes into a little too much detail afterwards. The intriguing part of this operation is that the doctors don't really know what they're doing when they go it. They depend on the patient to guide them as they go along. I personally find this aspect fascinating: the human side of the medical world, that doctor’s are not all-knowing. But this was not explored, since this is really a basic portrait of the procedure (first this happens, then that). Frankly, there could have been a lot less of the post-operation diagnostics, that went on for about 5 minutes in the middle of the piece. Not a bad exploration of a procedure, but it could have been cut in half.