Our little girl had her first seizure at six months of age. It lasted 25 minutes and occurred with her first illness, an ear infection. The pediatric neurologist who observed her during that hospital stay assured us that no one had ever died of a seizure. She was diagnosed with a seizure disorder and placed on anticonvulsants after her third seizure, at seven months. Over time, Olivia's seizures became progressively more violent and longer in duration. They occurred on a four to seven week cycle, and seemed to be triggered by illness. Her longest seizure lasted 3 1/2 hours. Olivia had a total of 17 seizures.

None of the reliable seizure medications were able to control her seizures. Within her brief life, she had been on Phenobarbital, Depakene, Tranxene, Tegretol, and Depakote. Seven times she went into status with seizures that lasted as long as 3 1/2 hours. The ER staff would attempt to stop each one through a series of anticonvulsant medications including Ativan, Valium, Dilantin, and Phenobarbital. During her 16th seizure, doctors had to resort to Pentobarbitol, which put Olivia in a drug-induced coma for 36 hours. The huge amounts of medication they would give her in attempts to stop the seizure, would suppress her breathing, requiring her to be intubated (placed on a ventilator).

Each hospital admission began in the pediatric ICU, until Olivia could be weaned from the ventilator. Then she would transfer to pediatrics until she recovered enough to go home. Her longest stay, before January, was 13 days. As her seizures became longer and more severe, her recovery time became longer. But she always did recover, and miraculously she was normal in every way. Her neurologist had never seen anyone like her.

Olivia's last seizure was at 7:45 pm on January 13, 1996 and lasted 2 1/2 hours. She was rushed by helicopter to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. where it was expected that she would recover as before, and in two weeks be the happy little girl she always was. But this time, once all the medications wore off, she could only breathe and blink. She did not respond to any stimuli. Tests revealed that her brain had been deprived of oxygen during the seizure, destroying the neurons, and leaving her irreversibly brain damaged.

Our little angel's breathing became shallower over time, and she left Mommy and Daddy for Heaven at 7:04 pm on January 30, 1996.

Even after exhaustive tests while she was alive and a full autopsy after death, no known cause was ever found for Olivia's seizure disorder.