Osvaldo Rivera said people take their health for granted.
Meanwhile, he said he’s thankful for every moment he doesn’t have a seizure.
Rivera is a graduate student at ULM who was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 16. He said he’s not sure how he got it because it usually develops at a younger age.
“My theory of how it happened is when I played little league, I got hit on my left temporal lobe and I fell on the ground,” Rivera said. “My family has no genetic representation of epilepsy.”
Rivera’s theory could be a possibility in his specific case.
William Hey, with the School of Health Professions, said there are various factors that can play a role in the development of the disease.
“Anything that disrupts the brain’s natural circuitry can cause epilepsy, such as severe head injury, brain infection or disease, stroke and oxygen deprivation,” Hey said.
Hey said a “specific cause” is never found for nearly two-thirds of people who develop epilepsy at some point in their lives.
However, that’s not keeping Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity from spreading the word about this disease.
They hosted an “epilepsy awareness” event Thursday afternoon in front of the SUB. They passed out pamphlets and a mini-quiz with matching definitions to test students’ knowledge.
“It kind of gets people involved in the actual thing,” said James, a senior communications major.
He also said, “If you just hand out a pamphlet, nobody’s going to read it and they’re just going to throw it away.”
James said there a lot of subjects that students remain unaware about that his fraternity feels the need to share.
“We want to make students more knowledgeable about certain things such as health, animal abuse, etc.,” James said.
James said they will be doing a different subject each week, which won’t be announced until the day of the event.
James said college is not only about “learning what you want to do for your trade.”
Rather, he said it’s about becoming more knowledgeable about everything so that every student can become a “more productive citizen in society.”
Osvaldo said he appreciates the fraternity’s effort to raise awareness about epilepsy and hopes they continue to educate and inform the student community.
