He’s not your average Joe.  In fact, there’s nothing average about 3-year-old Joe Scroggins.  This outgoing, happy little toddler is so full of life he’s known at Park Plaza Church of Christ in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as “the greeter.”

Friendly and curious, Joe is crazy about playing with his sisters – Mary Cate, 10, and Hannah, 8 – who absolutely adore him.  He loves to throw balls, and his father, Danny, is teaching him to swing a bat.  His mother, Melanie, gets a thrill just from taking him to the grocery store.  You wouldn’t think these everyday actions would bring such joy to his family, but Joe’s different.  In many ways he’s a normal child.  But in other ways, there’s been nothing “normal” about his life.

Joe has epilepsy, and until he underwent epilepsy surgery – an anterior 80 percent corpus callostomy – at Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center on November 14, he wasn’t even able to recite his ABC’s.  Within days of the surgical procedure, he was counting his numbers, talking in sentences and reciting the alphabet all the way through the letter P.

“We went into the surgery hoping he could just function,” said Melanie, “but with Joe we now have a perfectly normal functioning child.  And he continues to get better every day.”

This is major triumph for the Scroggins family.  Since Joe was born, his epileptic seizures continued to worsen to the point where he had to wear a helmet, even around the house.  Public outings were far too dangerous.  Trips to the dentist and barber were planned according to how Joe was feeling at the time of his appointment.

“It really affects your life,” Danny explained about having a child with epilepsy.  “You become very isolated.  In Joe’s case, his right leg was affected by the seizures and it was difficult for him to walk.  He had to stay in a stroller.  Going to the park, playing outside, there were a lot of social things he couldn’t do.”

Simply going out to eat with his family at a restaurant was difficult and dangerous because Joe fell so often and hit hard during the seizures.  Convulsions would come at any time, any place, without warning.  Even while wearing a helmet, he split his chin, knocked out a tooth and required stitches for a cut in his eyebrow.  His parents worked hard, but they couldn’t protect him from everything.

“He couldn’t go to pre-school, and when we couldn’t get his seizures under control, he couldn’t attend church,” added Melanie.  “He was missing out on so much.”

Joe experienced his first seizures immediately after his parents brought him home from the hospital as a newborn.  It took almost six months for physicians in his hometown of Tulsa to confirm a diagnosis of epilepsy on October 11, 2002.  In January 2003, Joe was referred to Dr. James Wheless.

Within a year of treatment by Dr. Wheless, Joe was almost seizure free.  “We were thrilled that he wasn’t having seizures, but the medicine kept him drugged,” said Melanie.

Unbeknownst to his parents, Joe was having small seizures at night while he slept.  It wasn’t until little Joe experienced a full-blown seizure during dinner that his family realized Joe’s quality of life would never be anywhere near normal unless they tried something new.  A new course of action was required.

“We either had to try new medications or consider surgery,” explained Danny.  “The last six months we’d been losing ground to the point it was time to try a new procedure.”

“Joe’s seizures used to be inconvenient, but we could work around them until this,” Melanie added.  “The seizures got so bad that he would sleep two or three hours afterwards and then he may continue to have seizures in his sleep.  That was the turning point.  He wasn’t talking, he wasn’t learning, just wasn’t with it anymore.  We realized he had no quality of life.  He just slept and seized.”

Dr. Wheless recommended Joe and his family meet with the pediatric neurosurgeon who specializes in epilepsy surgery, Dr. Frederick Boop, Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Le Bonheur.  They discussed the option of a surgical procedure called corpus callosotomy.  Infrequently preformed, corpus callosotomy is generally reserved for children with frequent seizures called “drop attacks.”

Although these attacks are brief, they cause the patient to lose muscle tone and fall to the floor resulting in injuries such as chipped teeth or lacerations.  Corpus callostomy prevents the rapid spread of seizure activity from one half of the brain to the other, preventing the drop seizure and resultant injuries.

As Melanie and Danny put it, they just put their faith in God and in the hands of Le Bonheur’s physicians.  And they had a lot of people praying for them.

“We believe God led us to Dr. Wheless and Dr. Boop,” Danny said.  “He has His fingerprints all over this, and He was certainly working through the doctors.  We told Joe they were going to fix his seizures.  Although he doesn’t really understand, he does know the seizures are gone.  He can now run around like a wild man.”

“He knows he feels good and he doesn’t have to wear his helmet,” Melanie added.

“Since the surgery, Joe’s life is as different as night and day, according to Danny.  “To say it’s a miracle is an understatement,” he added thoughtfully.

“We are so thankful this surgery was available, and we are more than pleased with Le Bonheur,” said Melanie.  “Everybody has just gone out of their way to help Joe and we feel that has contributed to the way he has healed.”

“Having a sick child is tough,” Danny said, “but Le Bonheur has the best doctors and best staff and they genuinely care.”

“They just get it,” is the way Melanie puts it.  “They understand what epilepsy is like and how it affects your life. It’s like they have a child of their own affected.  This makes it easier for parents to deal with.”

One of the best times Danny and Joe have shared together was just before Thanksgiving, only days following Joe’s surgery.  The family returned home to Tulsa from Le Bonheur on the Sunday before the holiday.  That weekend, Danny and Joe went to buy Christmas lights.

“It was the most fun I’ve had with him in a long time.  I let him walk around the store and explore.  We hadn’t been able to do that in months.  We are enjoying just doing the things that people take for granted every day,” said Danny.  “He’s wearing me out, but considering where we came from, it’s great!”

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