Mom earned a Ph.D. to understand her daughter's seizures, wound up finding a treatment

Moms often go to extraordinary lengths for their children's safety, and Tracy Dixon-Salazar is no exception. Her daughter Savannah began having frequent seizures at just 2 years old, but doctors couldn't diagnose the issue or offer effective treatment, according to TODAY. Rather than waiting for a solution, Tracy took matters into her own hands and found a way to help her daughter. Reflecting on Savannah’s first seizure, Tracy recalled, “Both my husband and I went at the same time, ‘What’s a seizure?’”

“At the age of 3, they came back hard and fast. She started having hundreds of seizures a day,” Salazar said. She then discovered that her daughter had epilepsy, but doctors refused to diagnose the same or term the seizures as such and called them “episodes or spells.” “We found out she had epilepsy by reading her chart. No one ever told us. I requested her medical records because I was a mom on a mission,” she recalled. Her daughter developed a condition called Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) at the age of three. It causes seizures and other hindrances to mental and physical development, per the National Library of Medicine. Salazar explained that the condition developed due to a barrage of seizures itself.

“Your brain is also trying to develop. She was 3 years old, and her brain was trying to put itself together. She’s got all this abnormal seizure electricity going on, so the brain wires itself wrong,” Salazar pointed out. The condition was becoming fatal for Savannah to the point where the girl was constantly hospitalized and had to be resuscitated. “Who is more motivated to understand it than the people directly impacted? And it’s attacking the thing most precious to you — it’s your kid,” she remarked. Despite multiple trials and efforts, no medical help was sufficient for Savannah. 

Salazar then took matters into her own hands and got a PhD in neurobiology, as well as a 3-year post-doctoral program to understand her daughter’s health and condition better. “Reading those (medical studies) drove me to go to college. I needed an outlet for the pain,” Salazar recalled. After years, the mom earned her degree and was able to do far more for her daughter, who still suffers from repeated seizures. She added that she has been able to reduce the frequency of the seizures. “I just wanted to understand what was going on with my child. I didn’t go into this thinking that I was ever going to help her. That was a surprise to me,” she remarked. The mom researched and figured certain calcium proportions were adding to the problem.

She mentioned that Savannah’s medication would leach calcium from her body, so they gave her supplements. “We tried (calcium) three different times and she always had more seizures. I’m like, ‘There’s something to this.’” She then spoke with doctors and put the girl on a calcium blocker. “It worked within two weeks. She went from having 300 seizures a month and going into these nonstop seizures a couple of times a week … to a 95% reduction in her seizures and it’s been 11 years, which is pretty incredible,” the mom said. Salazar shared in a Facebook post that her daughter recently celebrated her 31st birthday and is doing well. With her maternal love and hard-earned doctorate, the mom spared no effort in giving her girl a wonderful life ahead.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on April 30, 2024. It has since been updated.