[Laughter]
Narrator: Up until a few months ago, 49-year old Eric Berg would have struggled doing something as simple as sitting down for breakfast with his fiancée Tina. That's because he was experiencing up to 200 seizures a day.
Eric Berg: It started when I was 12.
Narrator: Living with seizures is something Eric has done most of his life. He says for 36 years his seizures were small, infrequent and easy to hide. Which he did.
Eric: I was a kid, I was scared and I didn't like it. So, I learned to live with it. You know, the 8 to 10, 12 maybe, I had that year because they weren't really that bad. They weren't hurting me.
Narrator: But in April of 2020, things changed.
Eric: There was a point that I told Tina, I think I've had more seizures in the last couple weeks than I've had my whole life. You know it was getting to the point where I was like, OK, this is my brain. Something's wrong.
Narrator: When Eric came to Mayo Clinic in June of 2020, he thought he was experiencing anywhere from 50-60 seizures a day.
Eric: When I finally came here, they told me it was a lot more than that. It was around 200-ish.
Jeffrey W. Britton, M.D., Neurology: It was very clear he was having very frequent seizures — about 12 an hour.
Dr. Britton: Eric was found to have a growth in the back left part of his brain, which is a fairly common cause of medically intractable focal-onset epilepsy.
Narrator: Dr. Britton says surgery wasn't a good option for Eric and medications to stop the seizures weren't working.
Brian N. Lundstrom, M.D., Ph.D., Neurology: So, the question then is, what can we do to help this patient?
Narrator: Dr. Brian Lundstrom was brought in to see if Eric would be a good candidate for an emerging treatment for seizures called TMS.
Dr. Lundstrom: TMS stands for transcranial magnetic stimulation. It's a form of nonbracing, noninvasive brain stimulation, and we have used TMS for other purposes: for depression, for mapping of epilepsy patients. But he was the first patient where we used TMS as a treatment for his epilepsy.
Narrator: In June 2020, Eric received his first five TMS treatments.
Eric: It might have scared me a little bit more to know that I'm the first one to try something But now looking back, I mean, it was the best thing that's probably ever happened in my life besides meeting Tina.
Dr. Britton: There was a noticeable reduction in seizures that occurred even in the initial few days of the treatment and then they stopped.
Tina: Probably the last time he had any kind of a symptom was then, June 24th.
Eric: June 24th was the last seizure that I can recall — the last seizure activity that I had.
Narrator: Eric returns to Mayo Clinic every few months for TMS.
Dr. Lundstrom: The real benefit of something like TMS and noninvasive brain stimulation is just that it is such a low-risk approach. So even if it only helps a minority of patients, we think that it may be a reasonable option for many patients.
Eric: It is beautiful day.
Tina: Yes, it is a beautiful day.
Eric: A gorgeous day.
Narrator: For Eric, it feels like he has his life back and is looking forward to all the new opportunities this treatment has given him.
Eric: I don't feel scared about things. I don't worry about having a seizure.
Tina: And every day that goes by that he doesn't have a seizure is a victory.
Narrator: For the Mayo Clinic News network, I'm Deedee Stiepan.