Laney

She was 20 years old, a pre-med honours student who had graduated from high school in three years and was pursuing her Bachelor’s in Medical Laboratory Sciences.

All while working as a phlebotomist at Swedish Hospital and as a research intern at UW Medicine’s Cardio-Thoracic Surgery department.

Laney was extremely driven, zealously sought to achieve her dreams of becoming a doctor, and wanted to save children from cancer. Most of all, she was our beautiful, loving, and compassionate daughter and best friend who graced us with her love of life, artwork, furniture-making, macramés, plant propagating, cooking of our family recipes, and each passionate pursuit she embarked upon every day of her life.

​The SUDEP Secret 

It was heart breaking to learn, only after her death, that each of her nocturnal tonic-clonic seizures significantly increased her risk of SUDEP. As a college student, who was sleeping unsupervised and reporting break through tonic-clonic nocturnal seizures, Laney should have been told about the SUDEP risk factors. This risk was never disclosed to us when she was diagnosed with epilepsy in California, as a minor. It was not disclosed to her when she began having break through seizures and was treating with a second set of doctors in Washington, as an adult.

In the months leading up to her death, Laney had reported having multiple tonic-clonic seizures, despite taking her anti-seizure medication as prescribed. Yet, even then, she was not advised of SUDEP or that her risk of death increased significantly with each uncontrolled seizure. Had Laney been advised that her seizures put her at risk of dying, or that this risk increased 15 times after three tonic-clonic seizures, it would have changed everything and our daughter would likely be alive today.