National advocate decries Edmonton epilepsy arrests

The Canadian League Against Epilepsy is adding its support to two epilepsy patients who face charges for behaviour they say occurred under medical distress.

"The charges, they don't apply anymore," said Dr. Jos Tllez, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan in the division of neurology.

Sometimes people wander around and in rare cases, a person might try to undress- Epilepsy foundation

His comments come after CBC broke the news that two men with epilepsy in two separate incidents were arrested and charged for things they say they did during or after seizures.

In one case, Neil Ryley reported having several seizures through the night and in the morning, and was showing aggressive and violent symptoms. His family called 911 for help and they say police came and beat him, then arrested him. In the second case, police say they responded to a report of a naked man in public. They Tasered him, then arrested him.

"There are some types of epilepsy that are related with aggressiveness, especially after seizures,"Tllezsaid."Usually whatwe see is patients have a seizure, or more commonly they have a cluster of seizuresmore than oneand after that they become aggressive.

"They are not aware of the situation or thebehaviour, and sometimes it can finish very badly."

• His family called 911 for help with a seizure but this man claims police beat him instead

Police spokesperson Cheryl Sheppard would not talk about the alleged beating, but said Ryley head-butted an officer, breaking his nose. In the second case, she said the man put his hands around an officer's neck. Each was charged with "assault a police officer."

Seizures and aggression

The most common type of the condition related to aggressiveness is calledtemporal epilepsy, Tllezsaid,but the behaviourcan also be seen in patients with frontal epilepsy.

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Ryley provided CBC with adoctor's letter thatdescribes hisepilepsy diagnosis, calling his condition "bi-temporal."

There are several training materials designed for police to help them prepare to deal with epilepsy patients. One is a pamphlet called "criminal justice: arrest for seizure-related behaviours," by the Epilepsy Foundation.

In a section about complex partial seizures, the pamphlet describes how people to go on "automatic pilot" and areunaware of what's happening.

"Sometimes people wander around and in rare cases, a person might try to undress during a seizure, or become very agitated, screaming, running or making flailing movements," the booklet said.

"A cardinal rule in the handling of any seizure is that the person should not be restrained in any way restraint of persons during or soon after a seizure may exacerbate or precipitate combativeness the opposite of the intended result."

Tllez said roughly 30 to 40 per cent of people with epilepsy can become "intractable," which means medication doesn't control the seizures or their symptoms.

Lawyers for men in both cases are in negotiations to try to have the charges dropped.

Both the provincial health minister and the department of justice have declined CBC's invitation tocomment.

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