Jeff Gibbs was a healthy and vibrant 66-year-old man until he was hit by an SUV while taking his morning walk. After recovering from the initial injuries, he had difficulty sleeping and experienced continued pain which led to visits to the emergency room. Jeff was prescribed antipsychotic medication even though he was not exhibiting and had no history of psychiatric symptoms. After taking the antipsychotic medication, Jeff started to experience confusion and psychiatric symptoms. He knew something was wrong and sought out the expertise of psychiatrists whose solution was to increase the antipsychotic medication. This was the beginning of a series of visits to the emergency room, hospitalizations, and admissions to ICUs as his symptoms escalated. Jeff’s daughter, Amanda, is a communications manager at Oregon Health and Science University Knight Cancer Institute and knew how to navigate the healthcare system. She sought medical opinions from numerous medical professionals.  Even with this expertise, it took many months before Jeff was suspected of having Catatonia and only after his circumstances became dire.

Jeff’s path was challenging, long, and almost fatal. COVID-19 was at its height and accessing medical care was difficult. Over the next year, Jeff’s condition deteriorated and physicians told family members to prepare for the worst. The family said goodbye to Jeff three separate times. When ECT was discussed, it was an easy choice to make; there were no other options and Jeff was close to death.  

The ECT schedule was two times a week yet Jeff continued to deteriorate. Amanda had been doing her own research and had consulted with colleagues. After reading many articles written by Dr. Max Fink, she decided to try and reach him thinking his expertise could be valuable to her father's recovery. To her surprise, Dr. Fink responded to her email and set up a time to speak to her. Dr. Fink shared with Amanda that her father needed ECT five days a week until the symptoms responded. He provided her with scholarly articles to support this. Amanda took the articles to her father’s medical team who advocated for Jeff to receive more frequent treatments since the standard of care policy was three times a week. It was reviewed and approved by hospital leadership, and after a total of 52 treatments, Jeff was cured.