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Ed Yeates ReportingRemember the young Salt Lake man who couldn't stop hiccupping? Well this next story is about an even rarer condition where a Utah woman can't stop laughing.
It's actually a rare form of a seizure that takes on a most unusual, even bizarre characteristic. Imagine laughing, not in a comedy theatre, but inappropriately and at the worst possible times. Rebecca Laws has just such a condition, but for her, it’s no laughing matter.
For those at Salt Lake's Off Broadway Theatre laughing is most appropriate. But for 29-year old Rebecca Laws, laughing in the absence of anything funny comes on without warning - sometimes up to twenty times a day.
Rebecca Laws: "People would say, ‘What's so funny? What are you laughing about?’ And I'd have to say, ‘Sorry, no. I wasn't laughing about anything. I just had a little seizure.’"
And seizure it is - a rare event called a Gelastic seizure - the name stemming from the Greek word meaning laughter.
Inside Rebecca's head a small collection of abnormal brain cells triggers what on the outside looks like laughing.
In a very clinical setting, St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix monitors several episodes. Rebecca starts smiling. Her head turns to one side. Laughing begins. Out in public, without all these hookups, the episodes are misunderstood.
Rebecca: "Well church is a perfect example of out of place and inappropriate."
Rebecca's husband Scott cites other uncomfortable times - including one in Sunday School during a very serious lesson.
Scott Laws: "It was a very quiet time and she just started laughing out loud, really loud. And everyone turned around an wondered what was going on."
Dr. Robert Miska in Salt Lake sent Rebecca to Phoenix. Neurosurgeons at St. Joseph's made the diagnosis and recommended a procedure called the Gamma Knife.
Rebecca: "Nervous but excited - a little bit scared."
Instead of risky brain surgery, she's fitted with a special head brace that allows radiation to target and shrink the abnormality. Once Rebecca is in place in the gamma knife, the beams are precisely focused through tiny holes - more than 200 - which surround the helmet. Within 45 minutes, the beams painlessly zap the growth in her head several times. She returns home the next day.
Dr. Andrew Shetter says it's wait and see now, three to six months, maybe longer.
Andrew Shetter, M.D., Neurosurgeon, St. Joseph's Hospital: "I think we need to wait at least a year to see what the full effect of the treatment will be."
If the procedure works, Rebecca says her life now will turn upside down, but strangely, right side up!
Rebecca: "To just have genuine laughter - to not have any seizures. It's going to be weird, but nice to have true laughter." Though Gelastic seizures often affect IQ, it hasn't happened to Rebecca. She's surprised everybody by getting a bachelor's and master's degree - now working on a third, a Master's in social work.
