In 2021, what started as a normal Memorial Day for Matt Kidd quickly turned into a life-changing emergency. While driving home from a family gathering, he suddenly felt something was wrong. “In the middle of driving, I’m thinking I was having a stroke — and I was actually having a stroke,” he said. The stroke paralyzed the left side of his body. For four years, he struggled through therapy with little progress. Then neurologists at UW Medicine invited him to join a clinical trial: a safety study of a device intended to reawaken damaged pathways in the brain. Led by neurosurgeon Dr.