 |
|
|
After years of suffering numerous, unpredictable epilepsy seizures triggered by Sean Paul’s music, a woman praised her brain surgery calling it a "miracle"as it cured her of the illness.
Appearing on CBS’ The Early Show on Friday, 25-year-old Stacey Gayle from Alberta, Canada, talked about the remarkable link between music and seizures and in particular her situation with one song in particular, Sean Paul’s 2006 hit “Temperature.”
Gayle said she discovered the connection between the Jamaican rapper’s music and her seizures 18 months ago, while being at a barbecue and collapsing when Sean Paul's music started playing. She then remembered having a previous seizure when she had heard his music. "I would get that aura before that song would come on," she said.
Music wasn't the only trigger, but it was an important one.
"I was just having seizures, just found it was triggered by music," she said.
A customer service employee at a bank started having seizures at the age of 21, as many as 10 grand mal seizures a day, despite being treated with medications designed to control them. The condition became so bad she eventually had to quit her job and leave the church choir where she sang.
"I don't know why Sean Paul was giving me seizures," she said Thursday at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, where she underwent the operation. "But as soon as the beat came on, it just triggered a seizure. I'd go somewhere and I'd be like, 'Don't play that song!'"
More songs with the same "trait" of triggering her seizures followed, including Rihanna's "Umbrella" and Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls."
Gayle is one of five people in the world who suffers from the bizarre condition known as musicogenic epilepsy.
"It's extremely rare," Dr. Ashesh Mehta, a neurosurgeon, said of "musicogenic" epilepsy. "There are only 50 to 100 cases ever reported of this disorder."
Gayle had two surgeries performed on her brain. 100 electrodes were implanted in the right side of Gayle’s brain during the first while the second surgery was to remove the electrodes as well as the trouble making parts of her brain that caused the seizures.
"We used the latest techniques, including image guidance, to pinpoint the areas of abnormality, and the operating microscope to perform the procedure during a four-hour operation," Dr. Mehta said following the operation.
She was released from the hospital three days after the second surgery and hasn’t experienced any seizures since.
"It's definitely a miracle," Gayle said "It's a miracle to be here. I'm back in the choir."
© 2007 - 2008 - eFluxMedia