Curing epilepsy through surgery
By University of Utah Health Care
December 2nd, 2014 @ 2:06pm
For years, Lisa Clark's life revolved around her seizures. With her brain constantly experiencing its version of an electrical storm, she wasn't able to walk around the block by herself let alone drive. Her personality became more aggressive and she found herself uncharacteristically "jumping down people's throats."
"Seizures can change your personality," Clark said. "It can change the way you act toward people."
Clark can't estimate how many seizures she had each day there were too many to count.
"I was very fearful, especially if I had a seizure around work or family members because I know it was traumatic," said Clark, who had her first seizure around age 30. "I had one at work and a coworker saw it and it upset them. It made them nervous to be around me."
Today Clark is seizure-free thanks to little-known epilepsy surgery, which she underwent in 2010 at University of Utah Hospital. Clark no longer feels trapped by not being able to drive or be alone, and her temperament has bounced back. After 10 years of seizures, she's the old Lisa again: friendly, caring and understanding.
Though many people including physicians don't know it, epilepsy can be curable through surgery.
"This is probably the most underused brain surgery there is in terms of how much of a difference it can make in people's lives," said Paul House, M.D., Clark's neurosurgeon and co-medical director of University of Utah Health Care's Comprehensive Epilepsy Program.