JOHNSTOWN After developing epilepsy as the result of a medical error when she was 13, Debra Iachini-Lux spent the following 30 years of her life wondering when the next seizure would strike.
The Geistown resident did not allow the disease to prevent her from starting a career in medical office management and going on to found her own medical billing and transcription business, Laurel Highlands Medical Consultants Inc.
But the seizures would interfere with her business and her life. She was not permitted to drive a car and sometimes would zone out during a client meeting.
In my darkest days Id just start talking about something that made no sense, Iachini-Lux said at the consulting businesss 1407 Eisenhower Blvd. office.
A doctor warned her not to take meetings alone, advising her to bring a colleague to pick up the slack if a seizure struck.
I would bounce right out, Iachini-Lux said. It was mental seizures not so much shaking and tremoring. That was in my sleep.
The National Institutes of Health defines epilepsy as a brain disorder that causes people to have recurring seizures. The seizures happen when clusters of nerve cells, or neurons, in the brain send out the wrong signals.
Doctors dont always know what causes the misfires, but they have developed tools and procedures to pinpoint the affected area.
A seizure at an airport during a business trip in 2004 became a turning point for Iachini-Lux. She found herself confused, not knowing who or where she was until a stranger read her plane ticket.
Thats when her doctor referred her to neurosurgeon Dr. Jack Wilberger at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, the nearest program offering epilepsy treatment through brain surgery.
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