Boy with epilepsy finds relief at All Children's Hospital

TAMPA (FOX 13) - A boy, once confined to his family's couch because he experienced crippling seizures finally got relief, thanks to the incredible work at All Children's Hospital. His story is what's right with Tampa Bay. 

Ryland Mcgough's parents, Azure Gipson and John Mcgouch, said their son has been down a long road. 
 
"We where afraid of him to get off the couch," Gipson explained. "It's heart wrenching. You can't even put it into words. It's just no words to describe it."

Ryland is 8-years-old, but the seizures started when he was 3. Doctors diagnosed him with epilepsy, a brain disorder so severe Ryland would have as many as 120 seizures a day.

"He would just be walking like a normal kid in front of you and then all of a sudden, in a few seconds, he would fall down," Gipson said.

And medication did not help.

"If it would have continued, there would have been things in his life that he would have been behind on," Ryland's dad, John said.

His parents eventually took Ryland to All Children's Hospital. Dr. Parrish Winesett, an epilepsy specialist, prescribed the Ketogenic Diet for Ryland.

"The Ketogenic Diet is a very high fat, protein, low carbohydrates, that works for seizures and we don't know why,"   Dr. Winesett said.

The diet did something no drug could do. Ryland is now seizure-free and his parents couldn't be happier.

"I feel blessed that he can do everything a normal child can do. I feel completely blessed,"  John said.

Ryland's mom said the family owes everything to the hopsital.
 
"They are a shinning star in a dark sky," Gipson said. "Don't go too high."

The Ketogenic Diet was designed in 1924 at the Mayo Clinic for people with Epilepsy.