Is it possible to stop seizures?

Seizures can be as mild as a blank stare or twitching fingers, or as severe as violent muscle contractions which cause unconsciousness. Today, Jenny Bambrick will be among the first to use an entirely new tool to treat them. Don't let her youthful looks, or the trusty stuffed dog at her side fool you, Jenny Bambrick has been through more in her short 21 years than some will experience in a lifetime.

She says, "I know I could have died during that, that's what really bothers me." She could have died during any one of countless seizures. She says, "Sometimes, I remember parts of them, but not the whole thing." She has suffered seizures, mild and severe, since she was a toddler. Jenny explains what an episode is like. She says, "I just kind of blank out and when I wake up I'm kind of twitching and then they'd say that I started shaking, I was foaming at the mouth."

As a result she's been in doctor's offices and hospitals more than most. She's also had to take more medication than most. Jenny says, "They've caused me to lose a lot of work time because they make me sick." She's also had to rely on the understanding of employers, friends, and especially her fiancee', Josh, who witnessed one of her seizures without warning. She explains, "He was driving in the van and he was very scared. I felt bad."

But the two are hoping to build a life together and Jenny is willing to do almost anything to make it as seizure-free as possible. So she's willing to be a medical guinea-pig of sorts by undergoing a surgery with radiation that has been done only a handful of times anywhere in the world. Jenny says, "The only thing I'm nervous about is the halo, and that's about it." Jenny is hoping today's operation will bring her closer to a normal life. It's a life she's looking forward to with her fiancee', Josh.

But standing in the way are the seizures Jenny's suffered since she was a baby. She says, "I'd just like to get off the medication and maybe get a driver's license, cause I can't get one now." That's because she hasn't been able to predict when a seizure might strike. Dr. Wilson Asfora, with Sioux Falls Neurosurgical Associates says, "The brain is like a computer and the cells transmit electrical impulses from one to the other." Jenny's doctor has been able to pinpoint exactly where there is a short-circuit, if you will, in her brain.

That he says is the source of her seizures. Asfora says, "If we can define exactly where the seizures are coming from, the treatment of choice is removal of this area." Unbelievably, they're going to remove the area without surgery. A device, called a halo, is fitted, so that a team of specialists can precisely pinpoint the part of Jenny's brain they want to treat with high-dose radiation. Dr. Steven McGraw, a radiation oncologist with Sioux Valley's Cancer Center explains, "If there's a few millimeters of clearance, we can usually be very accurate and hit the so-called bad area and leave the normal brain alone."

Asfora adds, "The advantage of radiosurgery is that we can be more precise. It's less traumatic to the patient. There are less risks to the patient and less complications to the patient." But there is one complication, possible damage to the optic nerves, that Jenny is willing to risk, in an effort to silence her seizures. McGraw explains, "Usually this blind spot is something that patients can learn to live with, but about 40-45 percent of the patients might develop a blind spot." In Jenny's case, the procedure will require nine distinct beams of radiation delivered at nine different locations in the brain.

McGraw says, "Basically it's mostly an art form to design a number of radiation beams to spread out the radiation dose." Jenny won't know for two to three months whether today's surgery has successfully silenced her seizures. We'll of course, keep you posted on her progress.