Jennifer Matthews: Thirteen years ago, Eric Phillips was on his way to being a lawyer. Then a single flight of stairs changed everything.
Eric Phillips: The top step had ice and I went straight over backwards. I wasn't found for like three hours and when they found me, I had blood coming out of my ears and my nose. I don't have a personal recollection for two-and-a-half years after that moment.
Jennifer Matthews: It was a massive head injury.
Eric Phillips: My pain just got worse and worse until I couldn't stand it. I mean it was so sharp, it was, I didn't know what to do. It was really hard to deal with life.
Rebecca Phillips: There were days I was afraid of losing him. And along came this answer.
Jennifer Matthews: That answer came from Dr. Sandeep Amin.
Dr. Sandeep Amin: These are patients who fall into that category of headaches that are extreme in nature, they have had them for a number of years and no treatments have worked. It's very common after a brain surgery or after injuries.
Jennifer Matthews: To relieve the pain, electrodes are connected to nerves, that exit the brain. An implanted battery then sends signals through the neck to turn off the pain.
Dr. Sandeep Amin: Each nerve has a positive and negative charge to it and by stimulating those nerves you can kind of reverse the polarity of the nerves. In patients who are good responders, this is a life saver.
Eric Phillips: Everybody said, they could just see me all of a sudden just start smiling and my smile getting bigger and my whole face relaxed.
Rebecca Phillips: You could tell that for the first time in years, he was feeling comfort and that was an overwhelming experience to see that.
Eric Phillips: It's given me a whole new life. It's like, I feel like I started all over.
Jennifer Matthews: This is Jennifer Matthews reporting.
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