thenewjournalandguide.com

By Leonard E. Colvin

Chief Reporter

New Journal and Guide

In 1979, while attending Virginia Wesleyan College, Lowell G. Evans was playing in a pick up basketball game when he suddenly became dizzy and passed out. The next thing he knew, paramedics were standing around him. “They said I may have had an epileptic seizure,” said Evans. “Epileptic? I told them I did not smoke that stuff.  I did not know what they were talking about.” At the hospital’s emergency room, doctors discovered a scar at the back of his head which they said may have contributed to the spell.

“They told me that the scar may have been caused by an injury and may have caused previous episodes of epilepsy. I did not think I had any,” said  Evans, who is now 51 and living In Virginia Beach. “I did not know what epilepsy was. I did not know how it would change  my life. But since then, I discovered with treatments meds, I had nothing to fear and I am living a normal life.”

While he was growing up in rural Gloucester County Virginia,  Lowell G. Evans had never heard of epilepsy, let alone  recognized any signs that he may have had the disease. He does recall people who had “spells” who fell to the ground in spasms. He recalled adults saying they were  caused by demons embedded in the person’s soul seeking to control it.