HOUSTON – One in three people with epilepsy cannot control their seizures with medication. Tiffany Penn, a mother of three, was one of them.
"I have spoken with all of them and said seizures look scary but they don't have to be if you know what to do," said Penn.
Seizures can have devastating effects such as brain damage. They can even cause death.
Like many with Epilepsy, Tiffany was having about three grand mal seizures a day when her medication became ineffective.
She turned to Clear Lake-based company, Cyberonics, the developer of the Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) Therapy system, which is Food and Drug Administration-approved for the treatment of epilepsy.
The VNS device is inserted like a pacemaker. The doctor will program it to automatically deliver the appropriate dose of stimulation for each patient. However, is a patient or caregiver recognizes a person is having, or about to have a seizure, a handheld VNS Therapy magnet will allow an additional dose of stimulation. The company says this potentially shortens, stops, decreases the intensity or decreases the recovery period of the seizure.
"What VNS does is provide very small electrical pulses and works on electricity within the central nervous system," Rohan Hoare, COO of Cyberonics said.
Hoare said these can work on patients who have difficulty controlling seizures with medicine.
Penn has had one for ten years, so doctors are confident this is an appropriate, yet not well-known form of therapy.
"There are many more patients that may be eligible for this than those who receive them," Chief Medical Officer Dr. O'Neill D'Cruz said.
Penn said the quality of life after the implant, with just one medication, is better than the times she was taking up to five prescriptions.
November is national Epilepsy Awareness Month.