Sandra’s Story

My son developed adult on set epilepsy on his 26th birthday. He had grand mal seizures and despite taking medication for them it did not work. He had a car accident on his way to work one morning due to another grand mal seizure. He hit a tree and had to be air lifted to a trauma center where he recovered. The worst seizure he had was at work in an insurance agency. He was rushed to the ER where the only way they were able to stop him from seizing was to put him in a comma, give him paralytics and intubate him. He remained like that for two weeks. After that my husband and I took him to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. He was there for a week having our patient testing and spending four days in the hospital being observed by two doctors 24 hours a day. They learned his seizures envelop his entire brain and it is hereditary. At the end of my son’s stay the head doctor told me, “I’m very sorry, this is the worst kind of epilepsy to have, it is the hardest to treat and it’s the one we know the least about.” Ultimately, the Mayo Clinic found that my son needed to take time released epilepsy medicine because his metabolism runs very fast and he had been burning through the regular medication much too quickly. Thank God, this change in his medication has helped him remain seizure free for the past five years.