When brain devices go wrong: a patient with a malfunctioning deep brain stimulator (DBS) presents to the emergency department.

A man in his 50s attended the emergency department with an acute deterioration in his Parkinson's symptoms, presenting with limb rigidity, widespread tremor, choreiform dyskinesia, dysarthria, intense sadness and a severe occipital headache. After excluding common differentials for sudden-onset parkinsonism (eg, infection, medication change), an error on the patient's deep brain stimulator was noted. The patient's symptoms only resolved once he was transferred to the specialist centre so that the programmer could reset the device settings.