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SCRIPT OF WRDW NEWS CAST ON PEDIATRIC EPILEPSY |
| Female Newscaster: What would you do if your
child was having life disrupting seizures and medications were not
helping, but rather making things worse? |
| Male Newscaster: Well, one family went to
the top medical centers across the country, only to find their son
getting worse; until they found help in Augusta. |
| Female Newscaster: Seven year old Brandon
was just a baby when he had his first seizure. The Douglas family
went from Nashville to Washington, DC, all without finding the
cause, until they came here. |
| Father: Half of his head was larger. His
left side was larger than his right side, and they saw it on the MRI.
That’s how they came up with the diagnosis. |
| Female Newscaster: Neurologist, Dr. Yong
Park, saw that medications were not helping. |
| Dr. Park: No matter what the medications
were, his seizures were not being controlled well |
| Female Newscaster: In addition to not
reducing the seizures, the medications also caused problems,
including weight gain and behavioral problems. Dr. Park knew there
was a possible solution, but the cure would involve risk. Dr. Park
recommended a procedure that would involve several surgeries: One to
implant a grid inside Brandon’s head to track his brain activities
and source of seizures. The second and third procedures would
involve removing part of Brandon’s brain, that was causing problems.
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| Father: I did have reservations, as would
anyone with a heart for a child. I mean, come on, they’re gonna open
up my son’s brain, you know, his head, this is pretty serious. It
was pretty scary. I was nervous. |
| Female Newscaster: Now, it’s been almost 2
months since the surgery. |
| Father: He’s talking more. He had a very
limited vocabulary; it’s still limited now, but he’s trying to
string words together and prior to the surgeries, he wasn’t doing
that. That’s a blessing in itself because he’s able to communicate
and let his needs be known even more. So, it’s been great. |
| Male Newscaster: And Brandon has slowly been
gaining use of his right side. Doctors say they won’t fully know the
effects of the surgery until after he is tapered off all of his
medications. But his dad, Kevin, says he’s already seeing the
surgery has been worth it. Dr. Mark Lee, at the Children’s Medical
Center, performed the operation on Brandon. You can learn more about
Epilepsy and the treatment options on our website; that is wrdw.com |
