When Sharon Defeo was a young girl, she experienced a few seizures, but was otherwise happy and healthy.  She got married, started a career and raised a family - but then, 24 years later, her seizures returned.

The seizures lasted about 40 seconds each, during which Defeo would say random words and make motions with her hands.  

"It was happening so frequently and I couldn't control it; I stopped driving," Defeo said. "I recognized I have to do something about it, and I was in search of the answer."

So at 50 years old, she decided to seek out the help of neurologists at North Shore-LIJ Health System in New York to bring the episodes under control.

Doctors diagnosed Defeo with mesial temporal sclerosis, a scarring of the brain in the middle temporal lobe.  The condition can cause a type of epilepsy, causing partial seizures that can spread and affect the rest of the brain.