– I have regained the joy in life, says Sinead Sammy, who went from having four or five seizures a week, to being completely seizure-free.
In her case, the cure has been to remove three centimeters of the brain, namely the place where the actual triggering mechanism for the seizures was located.
Detective work
The entire treatment involves both old and new technology: brain surgery, laser, GPS and ultrasound. The essence consists in finding the exact point in the brain that starts the seizures. It can be detective work for the neurologists, and for the patients it can be akin to torture.
Lack of sleep and k-pop
The patients lie in a hospital bed for a couple of weeks, connected with electrodes that read the brain activity, and then they try to trigger seizures, to see where in the brain they start.
– It can be painful because we need to stress out attacks, says neurologist Kristina Lidström at Karolinska Hospital. You can do that by not letting them sleep, or by playing k-pop at the highest volume.
“Breakthrough”
When the map of the epilepsy’s starting point is ready, that particular piece is removed with the help of brain surgery. Approximately fifty patients a year currently receive such surgery – but the National Board of Health and Welfare wants the treatment to be available to more people, as the complications are few and the results are good.
It is about the most severely ill, who may have several attacks a week, and who are not helped by medicines. The Epilepsy Association calls the treatment a breakthrough that can give their worst affected members “life back”.
A new life
For Sinead Sammy, the operation meant she could go back to studying law. She can train and travel and now dares to be alone.
– It is impossible to put into words what the treatment has meant to me, she says.