Operation can help kids with epilepsy

ORLANDO, Fla. — Just a few months ago, 2-year-old Jesse Eaton was having up to 2½ epileptic seizures a day.

His thin arms flung out while his knees pulled up and his body bent forward like a jackknife.

Medical experts tried eight different drugs, including potentially dangerous anti-seizure medications. They even put the boy on a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet, which has been proven to help lessen seizures in some children. But nothing worked.

Then, in October, Jesse underwent a radical new surgery at Arnold Palmer Hospital in which his brain was literally split in half to stop the signal that causes the seizures to travel from one side of the brain to the other.

Jesse has been relatively seizure-free for more than two months.

"When we brought him home, within a couple of weeks he was laughing out loud," said his mother, Mary Ann Eaton. "I hadn't heard his laughter in over a year."

The epilepsy had left Jesse developmentally disabled. The procedure he underwent offers hope that with therapy, his motor skills and other functions will improve dramatically.

"He can distinguish sights and sounds now. He recognizes people and things," Eaton said. "People take for granted a baby touching his mother's face. A baby smiling. Now every time he laughs, I laugh."

Jesse's surgery, called a corpus callosotomy, is helping put Arnold Palmer Hospital on the map as a center of excellence for care of epileptic children. The procedure is not offered anywhere else in Central Florida.

"It is estimated that 1 to 3 percent of the population has epilepsy," said Dr. Jasna Kojic, medical director of neurology at Arnold Palmer. "I see an average of one to three patients with new onset of seizures daily, and that's just my practice."

Epilepsy is a brain disorder characterized by repeated, spontaneous seizures and is diagnosed in 125,½½½ Americans each year. Kojic said because of advancements in pediatric and post-natal care, many children who may not have survived with epilepsy are now living with the condition and requiring medical care.

Jesse's procedure — usually performed as a last resort — severs the corpus callosum, a band of nerve fibers located deep in the brain that connects the left hemisphere with the right. Although the corpus callosum helps the two sides of the brain share information, it also sends seizure impulses from one side of the brain to the other.