An eastern Kentucky woman is the first patient in the state to receive a device designed to greatly reduce epileptic seizures.
Lowmansville native Cheryl Castle received a responsive neurostimulator implant in her brain in mid-November at UK Healthcare. Castle has suffered from seizures for 18 years and once had 42 seizures in three hours.
Dr. Craig van Horne is associate professor of neurosurgery at the University of Kentucky. "When it detects signals in the brain that are abnormal, those types of signals that lead to seizures, it then provides stimulation to those areas of the brain and prevents the seizure from happening or the seizure from spreading," said van Horne.
Castle says since undergoing the procedure, her speech has improved and her seizures are much milder.
Castle's 18 year old son, Mitchell, says in the last few months he's gotten his mom back. "When she actually does have a big seizure, she'll fall and we'll just wipe the magnet once and she'll get back up and didn't even realize it happened," said Castle.
Deb McGrath with the Epilepsy Foundation of Kentuckiana says the implant is a game changer. She says there are about 90,000 epileptic patients across Kentucky. ?
