Renee Thomas proudly talks about how her 9-month-old foster son, Steven, took his very first step a few days ago.
It was a shaky attempt, but it was a big accomplishment for the youngster. He is dealing with infantile seizures that come with epilepsy -- the result of being born with herpes encephalitis, a viral infection in his brain that was passed to him through his biological mother.
Thomas took Steven in when he was 2 months old, despite warnings from social workers in Tulare County about the child's medical history.
"I said 'Yes, I"ll take him.' It didn't matter to me," says Thomas during an appointment with Dr. Andrew Mower at Children's Hospital Central California in February.
There was really no need to caution Thomas, who herself was a foster child and has dealt with dyslexia all her life. When she thought about taking in a foster child, her five biological children -- the youngest is 14 years old -- had confidence their mom would be up to the challenges that came from Steven's epilepsy.
"I prayed and said 'Lord, whatever child you need in my house, that I can help and is dear to my heart, I'll do it,' " Thomas says. "When I was young, they told my grandmother that I would never learn. Not only did I graduate from high school, but I graduated from (College of the Sequoias). In every accomplishment, I wish I could tell the doctor he was wrong."
That's why Thomas has faith that Steven has a strong chance for a normal life with the help of Mower, whose specialty is the identification and treatment of epilepsy.
If you look at the human brain as a computer, then epilepsy is a wiring problem. It's a little easier for Mower to think in more mechanical terms because the Houston native started out studying engineering.
"I got my degree in engineering from Vanderbilt, but I hated it because it just wasn't personal enough for me," Mower says. "I just felt like I needed to do something directly with people."
While working on his engineering degree, Mower had been taking some pre-med courses with the thought of going into medicine. Once he realized he had made the wrong career path choice, he switched to medicine. His initial thoughts were to work in general pediatrics. He didn't decide to specialize in the study of epilepsy until he began to deal with patients with neurological problems.
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Kids Day: Children's Hospital doctor wages battle against epilepsy