Congress created VA epilepsy centers to help 66,000 patients a year

War veterans face epilepsy as side effect of head trauma
The Olympian
Adam Ashton Staff Writer
Published: October 24, 2013

Congress created VA epilepsy centers to help 66,000 patients a year

As a single mom and combat-wounded Navy corpsman, Holly Crabtree has too much on her mind to stress about the next time she might black out. She’d rather think about her daughter’s busy schedule packed with things such as dance classes and Girl Scouts.

But Crabtree’s been getting seizures every week or two since she was shot in the head while serving on a Special Operations mission in western Iraq three years ago. The bullet led to two strokes, partial paralysis and epilepsy.

She doesn’t feel the seizures coming and she can’t prepare for them.

“They surprise me,” said Crabtree, 33.

Epilepsy is a common side effect veterans experience after suffering head trauma at war. It’s debilitating for parents such as Crabtree who worry about passing out in front of their children, and damaging for other veterans who can’t drive or hold down jobs because of their occasional seizures.
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