Restaurant Tommy Fellow was going from his Ohio establishment to his house on the eve of Christmas when he started getting out of the road. The 71 -year -old Fellow was then preparing a holiday buffet for his family from 4 pm local time. He chalked out the disturbances to a flat tire. Gradually, he was able to safely complete his journey, relying on driving and relying on the autochorct feature of the vehicle.
But when Fellow stepped out of the truck, he did not get his balance.
“I finally realized that it was not a truck that was entering. It was me that was entering,” Fellow said. He went inside the house and talked to his wife and daughter, who said that he looked unwell. About five minutes later, he called 911. Paramedics took him to an area hospital, where he lost all the movements in his left hand and legs.
“They were really like an appendage to me. I could not feel them and could not do anything,” Fellow said.
A clot-busting drug reversed the stroke, but numbness on the left side of his body, including his face. He struggled to swallow, eat or drink. Physical and professional therapy only produced minor improvements.
Thomas Fellow 
Dr. Sharon Cove, Fellow business therapist and Center for Stroke and Hand Recovery, Inc. The founder of CBS News reported that his arm was essentially trapped in a bowing position with his fingers when he met him in January 2024. Working in his restaurant was out of question.
Fellow said, “It was very scary. You give a lot of things that you do, and even the common, the simplest things become like a core,” Fellow said. “We mark all these small victories … Being able to lift your arm or to take a cup is a huge achievement. Those small achievements are giant for a stroke victim. They encouraged me to keep moving forward. But there was always an idea behind my mind: ‘Is it as good as it is?” ,
A “first type of technology”
One day, another recovering stroke patient suggested that Fellow saw in a transplantation Vivistim system, FDA-approved The implant developed by the medical device company Microtransponder Inc. uses cargus nerve stimulation during rehabilitation to improve hand and hand functions for stroke victims. Vaginal veins are the longest cranial nerve of the body, with one side of the body, Cleveland Clinic according toThey regulate the involuntary functions of the body.
The Vivistim therapy system consists of a physical or professional therapist who sends wireless signals to the device. This signal provides a brief, gentle pulse to the vegus nerve while the stroke patients performs rehabilitation function. Stroke patients also exercise at home.
Director of a neurosurgeon and Kapal bypass program at NYU Langon. Eraz Nosec told CBS News that vegus nerve stimulation could enhance the brain’s ability to resume itself, known as neuroplasty. Increased neuroplastic “stroke” can improve motor functions more and more rapidly for strokes, “Nosec said in the emails made.
Microtransponders, ink. 
“There is no other FDA-innovative technology that has not been proved to promote neuroplastic for strokes, which create new connections in the brain, which is to keep them even after not being used in the device,” Nosak said. “This (A) is the first-its type of technology that is possible for the population of this patient.”
A 108-individual test Published in Lancet in 2021 It was found that the device generated two to three times more improvements and compared with just rehabs when the hand work was compared to those who survived the stroke. Stroke patients who have limited hand and ARM function after six months or more after their stroke and they are considered “medium to severe deficit” for the device, company, company Said in a fact letter,
Transplant aids in recovery
Fellow turned to Cleveland Clinic, where he Dr. Mark Ban met. He studies stroke recovery, especially in cases of patients such as Fellow, whose rehabilitation progress has earned months after the stroke. Bain determined that the Fellow was a candidate for the Vivistim system. Fellow became the first Cleveland Clinic patient to receive transplants on 29 April 2025.
“It was not really scared to try and do it. I was eager to see how it worked,” Fellow said.
The device was kept during an hour -long process. The wagus nerve sits just below the carotid artery, so the ban and its surgical team created a small incision to keep the lead of the implant and hid the mark in a fold of Fellow’s neck. The implants of the-pom-shaped implants were placed under the clavicle of the Fellow. Bain stated that the process itself is low -risk, “There is less than 1% of any complications.” Two weeks after the surgery, the device was turned on and returned to his rehabilitation work with Fellow Cow.
Cleaveland clinic 
Coave said that Fellow made great progress since implanting the device four months ago. He said that he has no pain or stress in the limb, and is starting to practice using his left hand to carry objects. The task is difficult, he said, but “nothing he could do before.” Fellow, now 72, said that he was thrilled with the progress made in a short time.
He said, “I am very happy to do it, I am very proud to do it, and I am happy that I did it.”
“the sky’s the limit”
Around 800,000 people in the United States experience an ischemic stroke every year, Ban said. Bain said that Vivistim and other new techniques can provide hope to patients such as Fellow, who struggle to recover only with rehabilitation.
Bain said, “I think in the next five to 10 years, what you are going to see is the explosion of procedures, equipment and things that will help people, once to bring back their lives,” Ban said. “In the future, I think the boundary of the sky we can expect for stroke recovery.”
At the time of his conversation with CBS News, Bain gave seven other stroke patients a vivistim implant. Coave said that in his practice, there are eight patients with an implant who are receiving coupled therapy courses. Microtransponder Inc. Refused to say how many patients have received transplants, but Shared a map It shows dozens of surgeons and rehabilitation therapists who provide therapy.
“I think it is the newest, most effective strategy for people to get back its affected organs,” Cove said. “This is the first real technology that is available, at least in the last 20 years, for stroke rehab. The principles we use as doctors to increase the use of someone affected by our affected hand, 50 to 75 years old. So it is a new technique that is actually reverse to the Stroke Recovery World.”
