The Nation - News from April 22, 1987

Less than two weeks after performing the nation’s first brain graft surgery for Parkinson’s disease, doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., did the operation on a second patient. The unidentified patient, a 41-year-old man, was awake and talking two hours after the 4 1/2-hour operation ended, said Dr. Joseph Ross, associate vice chancellor for health affairs. Dickye Baggett, 42, underwent the surgery April 9. The procedure involves grafting a segment of the adrenal gland to the brain. Parkinson’s, which is marked by tremors and loss of balance, is caused by inadequate dopamine, a chemical that allows brain nerve cells to communicate.