Celebrating the National Plan For Epilepsy Reintroduction: Part 4 - Leaders Speak Out!

On February 11th, the bipartisan co-chairs of the Congressional Epilepsy Caucus – Senator Eric Schmitt, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Representative Greg Murphy, M.D, and Representative Jim Costa  - kicked off a briefing to reintroduce the National Plan for Epilepsy Act - S. 494 and HR 1189.

The community was there to celebrate this momentous occasion. Listen to the briefing in full here. And ask your legislators to sign on to this legislation. You can find tools to support your advocacy and outreach here.

Gardiner Lapham - the founder and a leader of Partners Against Mortality in Epilepsy (PAME) spoke out in honor of her four year old son who was lost to Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP). She hopes The Plan will help unravel the mysteries of SUDEP and other causes of mortality, and also advance research, understanding and eliminate the suffering of families like hers.

Jaideep Kapur, MD, a global leader with the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) and University of Virgnia, shared his hope that The National Plan will reduce the burden of Epilepsy. He hopes The Plan will improve access to care, find new treatments and get new treatments to patients quickly and effectively.

Wendy-Jo Toyama, the new Chief Executive Officer of the American Epilepsy Society shared the importance of coming together as a community to continue to support research, programs, and innovations to eradicate the effects for people living with epilepsy.

Revisit Parts One, Two and Three for more videos and photos from this milestone for the epilepsies.