Team Jasmine

Facing an extraordinary challenge, this courageous Redlands student drew strength from her community, and in turn inspired many with her grace and grit.

by Catherine Garcia ’06

It started with a pain in her left foot.

Up until that point, Jasmine Sturr ’16 was a healthy teenager, experiencing the typical bumps, bruises and scrapes that come along with being an active 14-year-old. This mysterious pain lingered, though, soon spreading to her ankle and leg. Eventually, her leg began to turn in and she had a distinct, shuffling walk.

“We knew something was going on,” the Whittier, Calif. native says.

Doctors were baffled as everything Jasmine was tested for—multiple sclerosis, lupus, several nerve and muscle conditions—came back negative. Her high school years were a blur of doctor appointments, medical tests and unanswered questions, as she balanced homework with the hospital.

“I think the hardest part was not having any answers,” Jasmine says. “I wondered, ‘Is something going to ever come up?’ I didn’t want any of these terrible things they were testing me for, but I wanted something to show up. I wanted an answer, even if there wasn’t a treatment.”

“She was in pain every day,” her father, Mel Sturr ’83, says. “She functioned amazingly well, and a lot of people didn’t realize anything was wrong with her, because she kept her head down, always working, always getting As.”

Jasmine discovered a passion for science and excelled in Advanced Placement courses during high school. She arrived at the University of Redlands with plans to study chemistry, and patiently waited for a diagnosis.

“For me, chemistry is what got me hooked to understanding the world on the smallest scale and how things work,” she says. “That really gripped me in high school. It was definitely a huge distraction from all this health stuff and something I was good at. It gave me a sense of accomplishment, and I was really fascinated by the molecular world.”

By October of her freshman year, her ankle had twisted another 80 degrees, her back was hunched over, her eyes would spasm, and her shoulders were rigid, making it difficult to move. Finally, relief came when her doctor gave her a Parkinson’s medication called levodopa, which she took three times a day. During a visit home, she discovered while lying down that she could raise her leg from the horizontal position more than just a few inches, something that was impossible just weeks before.

“Her legs had really locked and she had trouble walking, and to be able to do something she hadn’t been able to do in years, it was really amazing,” Mel says.

Jasmine’s doctor soon gave her a diagnosis of “dopa-responsive dystonia,” a rare relative of Parkinson’s disease that has the same course of treatment. While not a cure, the medication allowed Jasmine to feel “alive again for the first time in a very long time,” and she continued taking a full course load and began to volunteer at Totally Kids, a local residential facility for medically fragile children, through Community Service Learning (CSL).

“Jasmine exemplifies the spirit of a student who leads by example; then you find out later she has serious medical issues herself that would have stopped anyone else in their tracks,” CSL Director Tony Mueller says. “She is one of the many luminescent lights that swirl on and off campus, in her case serving the needs of medically fragile children when she herself was dealing with a life-altering condition. She is the definition of compassion and service, one of those undergrads that stuns me, absolutely stuns me, and I am humbled by her grace.”

Jasmine spent her sophomore year taking high-level chemistry classes, and joined the Alpha Sigma Pi sorority. That summer, she went to Baltimore for an “amazing” internship at the Institute of Human Virology, a nationally funded AIDS research center. Before she left, President Ralph Kuncl wrote to a former colleague, Dr. Stephen Reich, a movement disorder expert and professor of neurology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Reich said he was happy to meet with Jasmine and would be a resource for her while away from home.

“That’s been a great connection,” Mel says. “He gave her some great advice on new medication that helped her go further, and when she came back from Baltimore she was in a pretty good state.”

What are juvenile Parkinson’s disease and deep brain stimulation?

Like other forms of Parkinson’s disease, juvenile Parkinson’s is a neurological disorder that manifests itself as rigidity or stiffness, resting tremors and difficulties with initiating movements. Juvenile Parkinson’s is a rare form of the disease that affects young people under the age of 20, and research shows that while no genes guarantee a person will develop Parkinson’s, there are several that increase the risk of having Parkinson’s develop at a young age. As each case is different, doctors establish individualized drug and therapy plans to control the symptoms. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a surgical procedure that is not a cure for juvenile Parkinson’s, but when successful, can reduce dystonia, tremor or dyskinesia (movement disorders).

Information from the Parkinson’s Disease Society

Jasmine’s doctors had been increasing her medication steadily over the past two years, and her life changed yet again when she developed a very common side effect: levodopa-induced dyskinesia, which causes involuntary movements. That’s when doctors knew for sure that Jasmine had juvenile Parkinson’s disease, and a downward spiral began—her arms flailed, she fainted when getting up, she lost the ability to eat, and her spasms at times prevented her from being able to talk or move.
“My body would just move uncontrollably and I wouldn’t be able to keep still no matter how hard I tried,” she says. It was soon clear that brain surgery was her only option.

“By the time I had brain surgery, I was so done, I was so ready,” she says. “I was like, ‘Have my head open tomorrow.’”

On June 1, 2015, not long after finals, she had an electrode implanted in the right side of the brain, to control her left side (she had a second surgery in December to implant another electrode on the left side of her brain to control the right side of her body). While she was awake, the surgeon drilled holes into Jasmine’s head, then carefully got to work finding the right microscopic spot to implant the electrode.

“You’re hearing the drill, and it’s all a very surreal thing,” she says. “They need you to be awake and doing stuff to know if they’re in the right place. They turned on the electricity, and where my shoulder had been stuck all of a sudden I could feel it relaxing. I couldn’t stop saying, ‘This is amazing.’”

The electrode is connected to wires that exit Jasmine’s skull and connect to a battery below her neck. It sends a constant electrical signal, which is programmed by a doctor who periodically tweaks it to make sure it’s the right signal for her. The battery is rechargeable, and won’t have to be replaced for 10 years.

“We latched onto brain surgery, because it really was a last-ditch effort,” she says. “It worked out beautifully.”

Between her brain surgeries, Jasmine had to have a feeding tube put into her stomach; in a rare side effect, her stomach is paralyzed from the disease, and she slowly lost the ability to keep food down. Now, she receives her medications, food and water through the tube.

“At one point I was basically starving and unable to take in enough calories,” she says. “The food pump runs 20 hours a day, and I carry it in a backpack. It allows me to function and do all these different things.”

Although still in the recovery phase (it takes six months to a year to recover from brain surgery), Jasmine says her family and friends are “blown away” with the results—she can walk, she’s not hunched over and her shoulders aren’t rigid.

“To see her still battling relentlessly, never wavering in positivity, shows us all that we can do better,” friend and Sigma sister Darya Farivar ’16 says. “If Jasmine can battle this disease and still be a chemistry major graduating on time, a truly dependable sister, advocate of social justice and living life to the fullest? We have no excuse.”

Research

When Jasmine Sturr approached Chemistry Professor Debra Van Engelen at the end of her freshman year to ask about conducting research with her, Van Engelen was cautious; it’s a steep learning curve, and not everyone can handle it.

“She was interested in my phytoremediation project, which is using plants to remediate soils contaminated with heavy metals such as lead and cadmium,” Van Engelen says. “I gave her several research articles and told her that this was one of my most labor-intensive research areas. I figured that if she wasn’t ready, my description of the work involved and the research articles would scare her off. Instead, she returned after reading and comprehending the articles and she was more enthusiastic than ever about the research.”

It was the start of a close relationship. Sturr and Van Engelen continued the project into the next academic year, and as Sturr’s medical issues became more serious, Van Engelen adjusted her tasks, having her do more research at the library and on the computer.

“Jasmine has been very courageous with few complaints or feeling sorry for herself,” Van Engelen says. “She is matter-of-fact about needed medical procedures but does not dwell there very long. She does what she has to do medically but always has her sights on future goals and new horizons.”

“She is the best definition of stubborn in that she will remain dedicated to whatever she wants to accomplish,” roommate and Sigma sister Michelle Acosta-Sosa ’16 says. “I’ve seen how this has made her grow, and she continues to reflect this inner strength.”

“I’ve seen the impact on Jasmine while the disease has progressed,” Julia Lozova ’16 says. “It was eye-opening to see, especially when she had the first surgery, the direct contrast between the two sides of the body, how the disease has impacted her and how the surgery has helped.”

Jasmine’s ultimate goal is to attend medical school, but first she plans to work for a nonprofit organization in Boston that helps the homeless with health care. She’s interested in neurology and palliative care, and has discussed with Dr. Kuncl the different options she has in the medical field. The pair have met several times to chat about Jasmine’s life and future. What stands out most to Dr. Kuncl is her “courageous attitude,” and he sees Jasmine as “one of the most perseverant people I know.”

“She’ll be among the most caring physicians one might ever meet, because she’s a lovely person with a great heart, and she has an unbeatable life story behind it,” he says.

Jasmine credits her family—including dad, Mel, mom, Sharon ’84, and younger sister, Bella—and friends with getting her through college and three surgeries. Her friends in the chemistry department kept her laughing through late-night study sessions and labs, and her Sigma sisters made her smile when they each sent an individual card to her as she recovered from DBS.

“They’re instrumental in being happy, and that’s what I want with life: I just want to be happy and live a good life,” she says. “There are definitely those days where everything goes wrong and you’re just like, ‘What am I doing here?’ Just having those goals in life, wanting to do something to affect the world, is what keeps me going.”

She’s also learned to embrace her medical issues, which don’t define her, but have shaped her into the person she is today.

“In high school, I was very quiet about the disability. I didn’t want to tell anyone about it,” she says. “I was mad at my dad for telling my teachers. Throughout college, I became better at being proud of the fact that I’m here and still fighting. I try not to judge myself on things I can’t do.”

“She’s not going to be that person who will admit defeat,” fiancé David Espinoza ’16 says. “No matter what it is, she’s going to push. Nothing fazes her, and even when she’s undergoing something traumatic, she says, ‘I’m just going to make an adventure out of it.’”

Before Jasmine’s original diagnosis, as her ankle continued to twist and each step was painful, it looked like she was going to graduate from college in a wheelchair. When she walked across the Alumni Greek Theatre stage on April 23, it was a testament to the strength she’s shown for nearly a decade.

“It showed me that you really can overcome anything, she says. “A lot of people say, ‘I could never do that.’ My answer is, yes, you could. If it’s your only choice, you can.”

A worldwide support system

As she navigates life with Parkinsonism and dystonia and levodopa-induced dyskinesia, Jasmine Sturr is sustained by her friends, family and an online network of people who know exactly what she’s going through. Sturr is part of the Never Give Up Parkinson’s and Dystonia support group on Facebook, and members from around the world give each other motivation and encouragement. “It’s kind of a family of sorts,” she says. When she’s having a bad day, Sturr posts about her feelings, and “overwhelming support comes in,” she says. “I get to do the same. I see it as sort of a responsibility to help other people going through this and giving back in whatever way.” Sturr has also recorded videos and posted them on YouTube to show what life is like after DBS, and has counseled close to 60 people prior to their surgeries. “One thing they don’t tell you about is what it feels like when they’re drilling through your skull, and what to expect after it,” she says.

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