Sharp Grossmont’s 100th focused ultrasound patient (video)

Just 60 minutes was all it took for Helen Rumsey to become the 100th patient at Sharp Grossmont Hospital to undergo a revolutionary treatment that stopped the hand tremor that had been holding her back for more than 20 years.

Helen has essential tremor, a neurological condition that is the most common movement disorder in the U.S., affecting approximately 10 million people.

For some, medication can reduce or eliminate the tremors associated with the condition. But when medication doesn’t work or causes complications, patients often go untreated and live with the shaking, which causes limitations and makes everyday tasks, such as writing, eating or drinking, difficult — even impossible.

One-time, noninvasive, revolutionary treatment

In 2023, Sharp Grossmont Hospital and Dr. Vamsi Chavakula, a neurosurgeon with Sharp Community Medical Group and director of functional neurosurgery at Sharp Grossmont Hospital for Neuroscience, began offering a state-of-the-art treatment called MR-guided focused ultrasound. The procedure is a one-time, noninvasive outpatient treatment that uses ultrasound rays, guided by the neurosurgeon with the patient inside of an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanner. This enables them to target and treat the areas of the brain causing the tremor without damaging healthy surrounding tissue.

On the day of her procedure in December 2025, Helen said she couldn’t wait to go to a restaurant and eat something other than a sandwich or other hand-held fare, because using utensils was next to impossible. “I look forward to being able to go eat and not have food all over me like a little kid, because by the time I get a bite to my mouth, I’ve spilled most of it,” says Helen.

She got her wish. The next day, friends Nancy and Mary, who had sat by her side on the day of her procedure, gleefully took her out to eat. Helen had a salad — something she hadn’t been able to do successfully for longer than she could remember.

“To be able to hold my cup of tea, put on my mascara, and load the dishes in the dishwasher without breaking them — I feel like I have my independence back,” says Helen.

Hand No. 2 to be treated this year

With focused ultrasound, treatment can only happen on one hand at a time. If patients have tremor in their other hand, they can have that hand treated after a certain amount of time has passed.

And that’s exactly what Helen plans to do.

“Later this year, I’m having my other hand done, and I can’t wait to get my independence back on both sides,” says Helen. “It is truly a miracle.”

Watch the above video to learn more about Helen and the focused ultrasound technology that changed her life.

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