Epilepsy can’t stop Nick Loveless

Other than multiple surgeries and hundreds of seizures a week, Nick Loveless is a typical kid

By David Holley

The Beaverton Valley Times, Mar 19, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

To help stifle seizures caused by epilepsy, Nick Loveless, 13, had devices implanted in his neck and chest that steady the neural storms in his brain.

Jonathan House / The Beaverton Valley Times

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Nick Loveless is like any 13-year-old: He’s wound with energy, he talks back to his mother and he coyly flirts with girls.

And like most other teenagers would, he changes the subject when his medical condition comes up in conversation.

If he hears the words “epilepsy” or “seizure,” Loveless smiles bashfully and brings up chickens or pirates.

“Ah! Run away,” he yells, after his mother, Tina Loveless, asks him what it’s like to have a seizure.

That doesn’t mean that Loveless is irresponsible about his health. His parents have taught him to eat responsibly, trading in candy for cauliflower. Tina Loveless said sugar increases the chances he’ll have a seizure, which is already pretty high.

At Tobias Elementary School in Aloha, “if someone tries to give him candy, he says ‘no thanks,’” she said.

Nick Loveless has epilepsy and, since he was 5 years old, he has been having multiple seizures a week – sometimes dozens, sometimes hundreds.

When the seizures first began in 2000, doctors tried to control them with medication, but the seizures soon overcame the treatment. Some of the medications also affected Nick’s mood, causing him to act out.

“One made him completely violent and uncontrollable,” Tina Loveless said. “It turned this perfect little angel into a monster.”

By 2002, the family realized Nick needed an implant that uses electrical impulses to steady the seizures.

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