Epilepsy essays

Epilepsy essays Robert J. Gumnit, a M.D., writes in his book Living Well With Epilepsy that all people suffering from seizures feel like that they are outcasts of society. They feel different than other people. They are scared to interact with others in public for fear of having a seizure and being made fun of. Some of the greatest people had seizures, such as Socrates, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Thomas Edison. People should not have to deal with this insulting everyday or even at all if possible. If people were more educated about epilepsy then they would not taunt epileptics, much less care that they even have seizures. To bystanders, convulsions look to be life threatening. The first time a person sees another have a grand mal seizure, which consists of lost of consciousness and convulsive movements of the body, they more than likely think that the person is dying. Then again, some seizures are life threatening. In a book entitled Epilepsy and the Family by Richard Lechtenburg, yet another M.D., there is a story of a woman who has a seizure while driving. The police find her dazed and confused, as well as uncooperative in the middle of a traffic jam. She was so confused she could not follow their instructions to leave the car. As a result, she was handcuffed, forcibly removed, and then booked for resisting arrest. She was injured in the struggle and lost several thousand dollars worth of cash and checks that she was carrying with her on her way to the bank. All of this happened because she wanted to conceal the fact that she had seizures, so she wore no identification saying that she had the dis order. Even with a physicians letter, she was still required to appear in court to answer to charges brought against her. She was ashamed of her disability and that is what it got her. Over a thousand dollar loss and charges brought against her just because she was too embarrassed to tell people that she had seizures. ...