Amanda Mattinson still remembers the day her then infant son Gage suffered his first attack of epilepsy and the helplessness that came with watching her boy struggle.
“He just wasn’t feeling well and we were waiting at the Pugwash hospital to see Dr. Blaikie when he started seizing in my arms,” said Mattinson of the first epilepsy event nearly 14 years ago. “He seized for 17 minutes. “At first they said it was a type of seizure we’d never see again, but he continued having them and at its worst he was having 40 to 60 seizures a day.”
After numerous hospital admissions and different medications over the first few years of his life, Gage had his last seizure in 2015 and has been seizure-free since then, but there’ll always be a risk of them returning.
“He spent a lot of time at the IWK and they finally told us he was never going to be seizure-free. They had such a hard time medicating him because he had so many kinds (of seizures). He went through every medication around here, so we were having medication couriered from the United States to the IWK for us to try,” she said. “We were sent to the Toronto Sick Children’s Hospital and they didn’t have any answers. They said he had several and intractable epilepsy, meaning it doesn’t respond to medication.”
In November 2015, the date of his last hospital admission, an MRI showed Gage had an atrophy in his brain and the belief was it was because of the medication. He was pulled off the medication without knowing what would happen and he’s been seizure-free since then.
Municipality of Cumberland Mayor Murray Scott (centre) signs a proclamation declaring March 26 as Purple Day for Epilepsy within the municipality while Amanda Mattinson and her 14-year-old son Gage look on.
Mattinson became an advocate for epilepsy awareness, volunteering with the provincial association and conducting workshops to help schools be more aware of epilepsy and what to do when a student suffers a seizure.
The family has been very active in fundraising for epilepsy awareness and participated in events in the Oxford area, including the town’s Christmas parade and an event that saw the gazebo coloured purple.
Today, Gage is a happy, healthy 14-year-old Grade 9 student at Oxford Regional Education Centre where he plays on the school’s junior boy’s basketball team. He remembers very little of his battle with epilepsy.
“I don’t remember having them,” he said. “It’s been so long.”
Amanda and Gage visited the Municipality of Cumberland’s administration office in Springhill on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, to help Mayor Murray Scott sign a proclamation declaring March 26 as Purple Day within the municipality.’
Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological conditions, estimated to impact more than 50 million people worldwide while 42 are diagnosed every day in Canada.
Nine-year-old Cassidy Megan founded the first Purple Day in 2008 to get people talking about epilepsy in order to help dispel the myths about the disorder. She also wanted to let those having epileptic seizers know that they were not alone.
Last year, Purple Day was celebrated in 85 countries.
Mayor Scott signed the proclamation to help raise awareness of epilepsy.
“When you look at the number of people across Canada who are impacted by epilepsy, whether it’s themselves, a family member or friend, it shows how more we have to work to raise awareness,” the mayor said. “Many people are often unable to recognize common seizure types or how to respond or administer first aid.”