Life goes on even if Parkinson’s takes hold of you. A story from the book Cuore, a life lesson comes from Lorenzo S sack. 56-year-old manager, who will leave his home in Sant’Urbano in the province of Padua on 31 July at 5 am to reach the capital. Back to pedaling after a delicate operation of implantation of electrodes for deep brain stimulation, Lorenzo decided to come out and urge his “colleagues” in misfortune to do the same, to react to the disease, to the isolation caused by loneliness and stigma. And with his wife Raffaella Roveron, who is also his caregiver and with whom he shares a great passion for cycling, they decided to go to Rome, starting from Padua directly by bicycle.
Bag
«I felt on my skin the stigma, the sense of isolation and the desire to close in on myself – said Lorenzo S sack – but I realized that this is how Parkinson’s wins. Who isolates himself and closes in on himself allows the disease to be overcome. So my wife Raffaella and I decided to leave for this adventure, joining the Parkinson Italy campaign that wants to bring people with Parkinson’s out into the open and, in my small way, return to others the encouragement I received before operation”. In Italy, there are officially estimated from 230 to 280 thousand people affected by Parkinson’s and parkinsonism. However, this is an underestimated number, from which the many who hide their condition and who even deny it are excluded, due to many stereotypes and prejudices linked to the disease, and to the social stigma linked to this condition. Therefore in our country the sick could be almost half a million.
The stimulator
In Lorenzo Sacchetti, professors Andrea Landi, a neurosurgeon and Angelo Antonini, a neurologist at the University of Padua, implanted a brain stimulator. The system delivers electrical impulses commanded by a device similar to a programmable pacemaker with a bluetooth system. The electrodes are able not only to deliver electrical impulses but also to record the activity of diseased brain cells and to correct their activity with very high precision, bringing it back to an almost normal level.