Ontario woman seizure-free after getting pioneering skull implant

After experiencing seizures every other week, Christine Kauzen has been seizure-free for months since receiving a rare epilepsy treatment.

After experiencing seizures every other week, Christine Kauzen has been seizure-free for months since receiving one of the first rare treatments of its kind in Canada — a neurostimulation device surgically implanted into her skull.

The 26-year-old, who lives in London, Ont., was diagnosed with epilepsy in 2020 after a series of what were initially believed to be panic attacks, which progressively became more severe. Kauzen had seizures that could last up to three days at a time.

“I had a convulsion seizure in October 2020 and was taken to hospital by ambulance. It was determined I had epilepsy; a specific kind that affects both my temporal lobes, meaning it was more difficult to diagnose because of how they presented,” Kauzen said.

“Immediately my life changed.”

Kauzen’s seizures began to take over her life, causing severe memory loss and forcing her to leave college and work. They manifested as episodes of loss of awareness, feelings of disconnection, déjà vu, confusion, heart palpitations and even the sensation of being watched.

“My seizures were happening every other week for a period of three days at a time, and sometimes it was even more frequent. This would reset my memory every single time and I would lose memory of the days I had seizures and those leading up to them,” she said.

“It kind of followed a pattern — usually happening on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays — and I have no idea why,” she said. The seizures often came in clusters, with about five to ten a day. After each episode, she needed a full day to recover, as they completely drained her.

Kauzen is one of 260,000 Canadians living with epilepsy, a neurological disorder of the central nervous system that affects the brain and is characterized by recurrent seizures, according to the Canadian Epilepsy Alliance.