My child just received the diagnosis of (any of the following): Intractable Seizure Disorder; Epilepsy; Infantile Spasms; Lennox Gastaut Syndrome. What do I do next?
After picking yourself up off the floor, which you will eventually do because your child needs you to fight for their life, find a hospital that has a Pediatric Epilepsy Unit and preferably, a Pediatric Epileptologist on staff. An EPILEPTOLOGIST is a physician who is Board Certified in Neurology (or Pediatric Neurology, or Neurosurgery), Board Certified in EEG (Clinical Neurophysiology), had Fellowship training at an Academic Epilepsy Center, and had Postdoctoral training in Basic Research. This physician may or may not additionally have a higher degree (e.g. Masters, Ph.D.). She/He usually belongs to a number of Academic Societies: American Epilepsy Society (AES), American Clinical Neurophysiology Society (ACNS) [formally Am. EEG Soc.], American Academy of Neurology (AAN), Child Neurology Society (CNS), Epilepsy Foundation of America (EFA), Society for Neuroscience (SN), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). There are only one hundred epileptologists in the Unite
