Vagus Nerve Stimulator

Marsha Schade looks through her kitchen window reflecting a tree outside at her home in Trivoli. After more than 20 years of various treatments for severe depression that at times keeps her housebound and at one time cost her her job, she recently had a Vagus Nerve Stimulator implanted in her chest and connected to the vagus nerve in her neck. The device, originally designed to treat epilepsy, has been also now been approved by the FDA for treatment resistent depression. Just over a month after having the device activated, Schade says she thinks it is beginning to work. "I have hope," she says. DAVID ZENTZ/JOURNAL STAR