Against All Odds

Imagine waking up in the hospital with no recollection of how you got there in the first place. A nurse hovers over you and says, “You had a seizure.” In a matter of hours, your whole life has changed. Your battle with epilepsy has begun.

This is Liz Rubin’s story. 

The then 32-year-old’s life was turned upside down in 1994. Rubin was a successful attorney and the devoted mother of two young children. She started having seizures while reading bedtime stories to her daughters. She often overslept and suffered from memory loss, sometimes even forgetting the names of her clients. Soon, she was just a shell of her former self – unable to work and struggling to parent.

“I entered this scary world of never knowing what’s going to happen,” she said. “It was especially scary for my family. They didn’t know what was going to happen to me.”

The North Potomac resident said she started the great search to stop the seizures. She sought out every neurologist that she could find locally, but none of them could explain why she had epilepsy.

“Nobody could ever tell me what caused it,” she said. “That was the great mystery.” 

Rubin spent nine years trying different medications that made it very hard for her to function normally. “I could take 100 medications that wouldn’t do anything but give me drowsiness,” she said. “They wouldn’t stop the seizures.”

Though unable to work, she volunteered her time to political campaigns and assisted various individuals running for public office. In 2003, she had a seizure while at a campaign meeting. Another campaign member with epilepsy passed along the name of his neurologist to Rubin.  

“My attitude about life is that there is always a silver lining,” she said. “Even though I was embarrassed about having a seizure in front of 25 people, someone in the crowd had epilepsy but had it under control because of Dr. Cochran.” 

Rubin met with Dr. John Cochran immediately. The neurologist works at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, where he was recently named Medical Director of Inova Health System Cerebrovascular Services. He provides overall medical direction for Inova Health System’s Cerebrovascular and Stroke programs and Inova Fairfax Hospital’s Neuroscience and Stroke Units.

Dr. Cochran recommended Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) Therapy as a treatment option. Rubin was implanted with the pacemaker-like device on April 15, 2003. The pulse generator was implanted in Rubin’s left chest area where it delivers mild, intermittently pulsed signals to her left vagus nerve, which then activates various areas of her brain. The outpatient surgery changed Rubin’s life.

“It was like a miracle,” she said. “I was thrilled. I didn’t have any more seizures.”

Rubin wasn’t quite seizure-free at first. She had her stimulator checked after experiencing some very minor seizures. But after the levels of her stimulator were properly adjusted, Rubin felt like a new woman.

She went back to work in 2008 as a full-time staff attorney with the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. Her two daughters, now both in college, have their mother back and no longer have to worry about her health.

“I was hopeful that I would find a way to be my old self again and I finally am,” she said. “If it were not for Dr. Cochran and the stimulator, I would not be able to say that.”

In the past decade, Dr. Cochran has treated 35 patients with VNS Therapy. “On average, seizures are reduced 30 to 50 percent,” he said. “Five percent of patients are like Liz. Their seizures stop completely. That’s tremendous."  

Dr. Cochran is ahead of the curve. If treatments are approved by the FDA and are effective and safe, he is willing to try them out rather than wait 10 years to see what happens.

“I think the best part about the treatment is that the more people know about it, the more people like it and use it,” he said. “I think keeping everyone informed about what is out there will have a big impact on people with seizures. VNS Therapy doesn’t have the same side effects as medications and many people say they actually feel better with VNS than without it.”

He recommends that patients take an active role in this process. “Patients have the opportunity to be partners in how they’re treated,” he said. “There will be a better outcome with that kind of collaboration.” 

Rubin agrees. The 49-year-old still keeps in touch with Dr. Cochran, who she says is her favorite doctor in the world. She is also a patient ambassador for VNS Therapy and shares her story with other people suffering from epilepsy.

“People get a little intimidated by the thought of surgery,” she said. “I explain that it’s not major surgery, it’s really easy. The benefits outweigh the surgery. I would never give it up for anything.”

Rubin is enjoying a new chapter of her life where moving forward and helping those who share her past struggle can coexist.  

“I think as more people understand what epilepsy is they won’t be as afraid of it as people were in the past,” she said. “It can be dealt with and kept under control. People are writing and keeping people informed about what it is. They need to do that.”