Former Michigan doctor apparently told patients they had disorder to boost his salary.
It had become a painful routine — marking off the box for epilepsy on school forms, year after year.
But Heather Hampel had no choice. A doctor had diagnosed her son, Stefan, with the neurological disorder in the fourth grade, and he had to be watched closely for seizures and side effects from the medicine.
Stefan took drugs that made him drowsy. He fell asleep in class and struggled at times to express thoughts and formulate sentences. In high school, driving was discouraged, as were school dances with strobe lights.
He carried the stigma of having epilepsy.
But the doctor was wrong: Stefan didn’t have the disorder. And he wasn’t alone.
More than a decade later, Stefan and some 350 other Detroit-area residents who claim the same doctor intentionally misdiagnosed them with epilepsy as children are still waiting for answers.
