Pat and Mike Carroll's gift in recognition of Maureen Gartner, certified nurse practitioner at the University of Cincinnati Gardner Neuroscience Institute, honors a lifetime of dedication to patients with movement disorders.
Around 2007, Pat Carroll started deep brain stimulation - a surgical therapy for Parkinson's disease patients that delivers controlled electrical pulses to parts of the brain regulating movement. Years later, the impulse generator battery charging the electrodes suddenly stopped working. In a panic, Pat's husband and caregiver, Mike, called Gartner at the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute, where Pat is a patient.
"She first said we might have a bad charger," Mike recalls, "but it turned out the stimulator had somehow been turned off. Maureen walked me through everything over the phone and she told me how to get it working again. She gave us the reassurance that Pat was going to be ok."
Since that day, the Carrolls have relied on Gartner and her expertise for quick and reassuring help to navigate the many challenging and changing realities of Parkinson's disease. Through thick and thin, with kindness, strength, care and concern, Gartner has never been more than a phone call away. Over the course of 20 years, she's become a true friend to the Carrolls-a friend who's caring for and dedication to Pat they chose to honor last year with a gift in her name to the neuroscience institute.
The Carrolls' gift is a fitting tribute to a nurse practitioner who has long been known for her caring and compassionate ways. In 1995, Gartner was honored by the University of Cincinnati with the Florence Nightingale Award, given to professional nurses for their contribution to direct patient care.
"Maureen is extremely special," says Emily Hill, MD, associate professor of Clinical Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine who works closely with Gartner and shares the funds created by the Carrolls' gift. "She dedicates so much of herself to her Parkinson's patients. When she retires, it will be very difficult to replace her."
For Gartner, though, caring for people is simply what she does. It's a part of who she is, she says, and her patients are her passion. Over the years, she's met and cared for many people with Parkinson's and other neurological movement disorders, and she's developed close relationships with them and their family members. She's given her cell phone number to everyone - "especially in the beginning," she says, "they really need to talk and I want them to know that I'm here, that they can always call me."
Gartner also has deep empathy and understanding for caregivers: She looked after her mother for six years after her mother had a stroke. "I understand the stress of caregiving," she says, "the 24-7 care that gets exhausting. I think caregivers appreciate that I know that."
Through the many years that Pat Carroll has been a UC Health patient, Gartner has been there for her. She's known Pat-a once vibrant second grade teacher and active tennis player - from the beginning: "she came in to do a clinical trial when I was a research coordinator," Gartner says, "and as the disease advanced, I gave her deep brain stimulation." Gartner admires how Pat and Mike have dealt with disease progression; the way they raise awareness for Parkinson's by attending events and fundraisers - 5K runs and biking events and the like - even as it's getting harder for Pat and increasingly tough on Mike; and she feels for them as Pat's disease continues to advance.
Medical experts concur that most Parkinson's patients take a significant downturn about 10 years into the disease. Pat Carroll is an exception: "We don't have a lot of patients like Pat," says Hill. "You have to be a very strong person - and have a very strong support system - to have had Parkinson's for as long as she has."
Pat, though, doesn't think of herself as strong. Living with Parkinson's is hard, she says. "I don't wish it on anyone." Not a day goes by that she doesn't feel sad that she's no longer able to teach at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Elementary School in Anderson Township, where she taught for 19 years and where, in the last three years before her retirement, her daughter co-taught with her. She misses the students. She misses being active and able.
But Pat also considers herself blessed in many ways. She's most grateful for her family - Mike, her husband of 52 years and her main caregiver, who she met when both were undergraduates at Ohio State University; her two daughters and her nine grandchildren. One of them made a cardboard sign that reads "Grit like Grandma." It hangs above the fireplace in the Carroll's living room as a testament to the strength and willpower of a wife, mother and grandmother who, since she was first diagnosed with Parkinson's 27 years ago, has valiantly taken the disease in her stride, and no matter the challenges, still makes each day count.
Thanks to the Carrolls, the neuroscience institute has been able to hire a much-needed registered dietitian, Jona Ridgway, for which they - and Gartner - are extremely grateful. Many Parkinson's patients lose weight as the disease progresses and it becomes harder to chew and swallow. "Jona has helped us to stabilize Pat's weight, and she has also reached out to us to continue to provide Pat with additional help as needed," says Mike.
The Carrolls are eager to continue supporting the James J. and Joan A. Gardner Family Center for Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders clinical and research efforts in various areas related to Parkinson's. They're interested in the work Dr. Hill's team is doing to launch clinical trials where existing Parkinson's medications are being repurposed to help cognitive impairment. Dr. Hill is also studying the link between genetics and Parkinson's and looking more closely at alpha-synuclein proteins, the abnormal buildup of which is thought to be responsible for Parkinson's. "The line of thinking has been that we should get rid of those proteins, but that hasn't worked," she says, "so now we're looking at ways to leave the proteins there and supplement the brain, give it back proteins it has lost."
Featured image at top: Left to right, Emily Hill, MD; Alberto J. Espay, MD; Maureen Gartner; Pat and Mike Carroll; Andrew P. Duker, MD. Photo/Provided.
