LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Georgetown, Kentucky, family says surgery their daughter had at UofL Health in Louisville has been "life-changing."
Megan Fox, 21, has suffered from seizures for years. Her mother, Samantha Fox, said Megan's seizures first began in 2017. By 2020, she was having atonic seizures, known as drop attacks, around 20 times every day.
"(Megan) knocked her teeth out, she broke her foot, she had to get stitches on her face," explained Samantha Fox. "We did the medications and we got it down to where it was four, about four (seizures) per day, but that's still not great. That's still dangerous."
Samantha and Megan Fox. (WDRB photo)
After talking it over for quite some time, the Fox family decided surgery would be the best option. But it didn't come without risks.
Megan and her family met with UofL Health neurosurgeon Dr. Ajmal Zemmar about a surgery called corpus callosotomy.
The surgery involves cutting a band of fibers between the two sides of the brain.
As Zemmar explained, "There's a major highway that connects these two to make the two sides of the brain talk to each other. The same highway is used by the seizures to propagate the seizures so that they could drive across the brain. So, if you cut that highway — if you cut those fibers — it is known that we can control the seizures. No guarantee, but we can try our best to control them."
It can be risky. A small move in the wrong direction could impact a patients' ability to walk, talk, or even breathe, according to Zemmar.
"This is a surgery where a few millimeters off literally can change somebody's life," he said.
In his near decade as a surgeon, Zemmar said he's been part of six of these surgeries.
Megan Fox participates in physical therapy with Dr. Ajmal Zemmar. (WDRB photo)
For Megan, the surgery was a success. She hasn't had any seizures since she left the hospital in November.
"It's been life-changing for our family," said Samantha Fox. "We can go places. We can do things, we don't have to worry constantly."
Megan has also been able to completely drop one of her previous medications and still — no seizures.
"She just was over-medicated," said Samantha Fox. "It was taking her a long time to process things and the goal is to maybe be able to drop more medications and then she'll be back to her old self even more."
Zemmar said Megan had some difficulty breathing after surgery, but that issue has since resolved. She's been participating in physical therapy for two months now, and graduated from the program Monday.
While movement in her left side was a concern during recovery, Samantha Fox said Megan has now regained full range of motion.
One of Megan's favorite things to do is participate in Special Olympics Bowling. Because of the atonic seizures, she had to quit. Now, her parents are hopeful she can start participating once again.
"I think this is one of the examples that we live for," said Zemmar.
Laura Stebbins, a physical therapy supervisor, said Megan has made incredible progress.
"I actually personally did her initial evaluation. We were able to see her about a week after she was released from the hospital. She wasn't talking hardly at all, she was having a lot of difficulty moving her left arm and leg," said Stebbins. "As you guys have seen today, she's doing awesome and we're going to hand over the reigns back to her school therapy team."
Zemmar said there are about 200,000 new epilepsy cases in the United States each year and for about 30% of those patients, medications don't work. Zemmar said those patients are potential candidates for the surgical options, but he believes many people are not aware of the options available.
To learn more about the Epilepsy Center at UofL Health, click here.
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