After nine years of tremor, Bud Leavell's hands went still in minutes — and the ham radios came back

Keith 'Bud' Leavell, a 72-year-old retired Air Force veteran, loved repairing ham radios — work that needs a rock-steady hand. A tremor that began in 2017 led to a Parkinson's disease diagnosis, and while his medicine eased other symptoms, the shaking in his right hand never stopped, and the radios gathered dust. At UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, he tried a newer option: MR-guided focused ultrasound, which aims sound waves at one tiny spot in the brain — no cuts, no open surgery, and patients stay awake. Minutes after his procedure in April 2026, the tremor was gone; in the weeks that followed, his slowness and stiffness eased too. His care team has now performed nearly 450 of these procedures. It is not a cure, and he still takes his Parkinson's medicine — but Bud is back at his workbench, back at the gym, and back out hunting.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation