Seizures Misunderstood - John Travolta's son

I have been getting upset watching the news regarding John Travolta's son's death. The people talking about seizures and the Travolta's religion are doing a disservice to those who live with epilepsy. From my own experience with my daughter's seizures I would just like to set the record straight, somewhere. Seizures can not always be controlled with medication or even multiple medications. Sometimes anti-seizure meds do more harm than good. It is a dance to find the right kind of med for the particular kind of seizure(s) an individual has. Seizures that may appear as one kind may actually be another. Not every person with epilepsy is a candidate for surgery. Again, type of seizures have to be identified, where the seizures are coming from have to be identified, and whether that place in the brain is even operable has to be determined. Brain surgery is a huge risk! One of our daughters has a Chiari Malformation in her brain, as we met with a Neurosurgeon we have heard from their mouths, they never do surgery unless it will do more good than harm, anytime you go into the brain, you can do more harm. So, for all the people who are so callously assuming that it was John Travolta's religion that stopped him from getting his son brain surgery or meds, please, please go to medical school first before you talk about such things, or walk a mile, no walk 16 years with a child who has seizures and see if you come to the same conclusions.

Jan 7th, 2009