MADERA -  This week, Valley Children’s Hospital unveiled a new Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. This new facility, located in the Voyager Unit of the Madera hospital, is a designated area for epilepsy patients who need to be monitored over longer periods of time.

This unit includes six rooms with hard-wired beds, nine portable machines, and a play area. There are also video cameras in each room and throughout the hallways, allowing patients more freedom to roam while still being monitored over multiple consecutive days and ensuring no data is lost. This facility creates a more comfortable environment, conducive to optimal seizure monitoring.

“When patients have to be monitored over several days in our Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, it can be stressful on both the patient and the families,” explains the Medical Director of Neurosciences Dr. Cesar Santos. “With this new facility, patients and families will be next door to others experiencing the same problems, creating a community for each other.”

The EMU is part of the Valley Children’s level 4 Epilepsy Center, which provides fully comprehensive services from epilepsy monitoring to the most innovative surgical options.

“Our Valley Children’s neuroscience center provides everything a patient would need from a fully comprehensive Epilepsy Surgery Program,” says Medical Director of Neurosurgery Dr. Patricia Clerkin. “This allows patients to be monitored and tested, discuss a variety of treatment options, receive surgical intervention if need be and recover all in the same building, with the same neuro team.”

Currently, there are approximately 12,000 children living with epilepsy in the Central Valley. While one-third of these cases are not controllable with medication, technology at Valley Children’s such as surgical robots and laser ablation provide advanced and innovative options for patients.

A level 4 Epilepsy Center means that Valley Children’s provides a full depth and breadth of services, including:

• Complex forms of intensive neurodiagnostic monitoring
• Extensive medical, neuropsychological and psychosocial treatment
• Complete evaluation for epilepsy surgery, including intracranial electrodes
• A broad range of surgical care for epilepsy

Valley Children’s Epilepsy Center is part of the greater Valley Children’s Neuroscience program, which includes Neurology, Neurosurgery, Neuropsychology, and Neuro-oncology. This neuroscience program treats a wide range of complex brain and spinal cord conditions for children and adolescents.