Could Brain Surgery Save A Father And Son?
Carl Luepker was 10 years old when he first noticed his right hand twitching slightly when he played piano. It was like it had a mind of his own.
When he was 12, doctors diagnosed him with a degenerative nerve disease called dystonia. The disorder causes nerves in the brain to misfire, causing uncontrolled muscle spasms that get worse over time.
By the time I met Carl in college in 1991, his hand spasms had gotten bad enough that he couldn't play piano at all. But he kept it pretty well hidden. He was the kind of guy who led a mock rock band called Cheshire Cat. I remember him straddling the mic stand and singing Foxy Lady, his wide grin framed by flailing red hair.
But the dystonia kept spreading and eventually started to affect his speech. "I started to sound more and more like Chewbacca," he says.
He can joke about it,
