NINE-YEAR-OLD James McMullen is enjoying the start of another school year, with a strict new diet helping to combat epileptic seizures.
Mum Lorrie said James had a bad few months last year when he started having a different type of seizure they hadnt seen before.
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At his worst, James was having up to three seizures a day and it culminated in a week-long stay at the Austin Hospital in September as doctors tried to find out what was causing them.
Around the same time, he was diagnosed with a digestive disorder, fructose malabsorption, and going on a strict diet had helped limit seizures, Mrs McMullen said.
She said he had only had about five seizures since then.
James, who is in Grade 4 at Scoresbys St Judes Primary, has complex generalised epilepsy, resulting in a range of different seizures, from a brief stiffening of his muscles to losing all muscle strength and dropping to the ground.
The epilepsy was thought to have been brought on by bleeding on the brain, which he suffered when he was born 12 weeks premature.
He was given only a 3 per cent chance of survival at the time.
He started having seizures at age three and ended up unconscious in hospital twice before he was diagnosed at age four.
Originally posted here:
Diet combats Scoresby student's epilepsy
