Pediatric Epilepsy Program Patient Stories

After years of uncertainty, genetic testing for epilepsy helped identify the cause of Ryan’s seizures. With this breakthrough, he’s now nearly seizure free.

AJ’s life was relatively uncomplicated until age 14, when he began to experience unpredictable seizures and received a life-changing diagnosis of epilepsy.

 State-of-the-art brain surgery at CHOP reduced Emily’s seizures from 90 per day to zero — it's been life changing for her and her family.

With support from CHOP’s Dietary Treatment Program, Kayla is following a modified ketogenic diet and living her busy teenage life seizure-free.

Ava has been seizure-free for nearly a year thanks to successful hemispherotomy brain surgery and coordinated care at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Before starting on the ketogenic diet, Tikvah suffered from intractable absence seizures. But after just two months on the diet, her condition dramatically improved.

Four years ago, Nicholas was having 30 epileptic seizures a day. With the help of CHOP’s neurology experts and the high-fat ketogenic diet, Nicholas is now a typical second-grader.

Korey has epilepsy, one of the most common brain disorders in children, but his treatment is unusual: a diet of exactly 90 percent fat, 7 percent protein and 3 percent carbohydrates. It’s called the ketogenic diet and it's proven effective for children whose epilepsy does not respond to medication.