The Sad Reality of Epilepsy

In one remote village, an old Pa shared his experience. His first born daughter had epilepsy. She was a mother of twin girls. One afternoon she went to the stream behind their house to wash clothes. It was during the dry season, so the stream was very low with only a few inches of water. She had finished the laundry and had it folded in a basket on the rocks when she had a seizure. She fell into the water in such a way that both her mouth and nose were covered. 

Her daughters began crying. Eventualy their cries drew a villager to investigate, but it was too late. She had already drowned. Her two young girls are now motherless. They are about to enter nursery school. They are shy, and sat on a bench quietly playing with each other during my meeting with the Pa. Their mother was my age. If she were alive today, she would be 23 years old.

Later that same year, the Pa’s second daughter had an epileptic seizure while cooking. In Cameroon, woman cook in outdoor kitchens over open fires. She was alone. She fell into the fire and suffered terrible burns. The Pa showed us the tattered rags that were left of the dress his daughter had been wearing that day. She was transported to the hospital, but died the next morning. She also left behind a young child.

The Pa additionally has one son living with epilepsy. He prays every day that his son will not be taken from him the way his daughters were.

The hardest part about confronting these deaths is that they are so unnecessary and senseless. If these women had had access to medicine, it is likely they would not have had seizures those days. If there had been basic education, if the women knew the safety precautions they could have taken, if the community knew how to react to a seizure, if villagers had accompanied them—countless ifs—those children would likely still have mothers today. Epilepsy is having dramatic consequences in Cameroon which can be prevented. CODEF and Peace Corps Volunteers are working hard to create awareness, distribute medication, and bring basic education to rural communities to fight against results like these.