Canfield woman celebrates 25 years since life-altering brain surgery

(WKBN) — 25 years ago today, Anne Crawford of Canfield was preparing to pass the bar as an attorney and have life-altering brain surgery.  Her husband Scott describes the medical procedure.

“She had a menglingdalla hypocapectomy,” Scott said. “The damaged part of her brain was removed, so they removed that part of her brain, and they also removed a lesion that was also causing the seizures.”

Up to that point, Anne had suffered from sporadic seizures from an early age.

“The first visible one was when I was four, and I had seizures intermittently through my life from that day forward,” Anne said.

Before the surgery, the thought of having children was not an option.

“I didn’t have kids in my picture because that was not an option for me based on the medications I was on and my history book with seizures,” Anne said.

Her husband calls it a miracle.  Before the surgery, day-to-day life was peppered with uncertainty of her seizures.

“They were petite mal, they were partial complex, like she would stare off into space, unable to talk,” Scott said. “She’d also wander off, and she also had a hand tremor.”

Anne has this advice for those with an epilepsy diagnosis.

“Explore all avenues to be sure you’re taking the best route that you can take based on the circumstances of the diagnosis that you have,” Anne said.

Anne handles estate and medical planning in her law practice.  She’s an advocate for having a plan.

“So I think from the time you’re 18 years of age, you need to have your healthcare directives,” Anne said. “And I think that you need to know how you want your life to play out, in case it doesn’t play out the way you think it will be.”

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