A Woman's Desire to Overcome

The sight of someone having a severe epileptic seizure is hard to forget. The person suddenly cries out, loses consciousness, falls to the ground, or arms and legs jerk convulsively for several minutes. One out of every hundred people in this country has epilepsy.

While in high school, Amber Dorsey, 23, of Hampton Virginia and a friend were driving when her friend lost control of the car as it jumped the guard rail and rocketed into the water. They were both rescued and transported to safety.

On December 26, 2004, she suffered her first seizure. An alumnus of Georgetown University on a full basketball scholarship, Amber had her first seizure in practice after running sprints. “I was tired and I felt light headed,” said Amber. The next thing I know, I woke up in the hospital.

Amber has lived her life as a normal, young adult, doing everything and anything that she wants to do. She enjoys partying with her friends and has a prominent love life of three years. She never looked at herself as being any different from any of her peers did not want anyone to think of her as a charity case. “I am a strong, driven, black woman,” said Ms. Dorsey with enthusiasm. I can do everything that the next woman can do and if I can’t, then I’ll do everything that I can possibly do until I can!

A person with epilepsy is said to have a disorder and can even be classified as having a disability. They have the option of taking un-timed test, getting extensions on their work, and even having a handicap parking pass. For Ms. Dorsey, this seems illogical.

Her first two years with the disorder, Amber suffered from chronic Grand Mal seizures, which means your body goes into convulsions and you shake uncontrollably. The simplest thing can trigger a seizure in an epileptic individual; looking at a lava lamp, a certain smell in the air, hearing a certain song on your ipod, or even having a bad dream. These are all things that caused Amber to have seizures.

At the request of her coach, Terry Flournoy, head coach of Georgetown Women’s Basketball, she insisted that for heath purposes, Amber stop playing basketball. Although uneasy with this decision, she accepted it. “If it was up to me, I would still be playing”, Amber said. But I understand that she only has my best interest at heart.

What one would call a struggle turned into a driving force for Amber. She graduated from Georgetown, in the class of 2005 with a double major in psychology and sociology and went on to work on her Masters degree. At 23, she now carries a Master’s from Radford University in Radford, Virginia and wants to further her education by getting her PhD.

Slug:Wall

A 36-year-old Baltimore woman suffered first degree burns on over 25% of her body Friday after a freak accident involving insecticide from a can of aerosol ignited by a stove that resulted in combustion, fire officials said.

Arnetta Sands, of the 200 block of North Aisquith Street, was using insecticide near her stove when it ignited at around 12:13 a.m., which caused major fire damage to her kitchen and furnishings, as well as to the apartment next to hers. Sands suffered first-degree burns and the fire caused a wall between the two apartments to collapse, which landed on the crib of a 10 day old baby, authorities said.

Fire Fighters removed the portion of the wall that landed on the crib of the newborn, Andre Henderson. Renee Henderson, the mother of the baby was uninjured in the incident according to authorities and her and as well as the baby was brought to the hospital for possible smoke inhalation. Both were treated and released and hospital.

Sands was taken to the hospital and treated for her burns and was later released from a church home and hospital. Captain Thommen of the fire department reported that the fire was accidental and no one else was reported injured in the accident.

Holdup

Three male suspects entered a Provident Savings Bank on 3111 Greenmount Avenue, when they ransacked several teller’s cages, stuffed money in two white pillowcases, and ordered everyone to lie down on the floor, while one armed with .22 cal sawed-off rifle pointed it at the male bank manager.

The suspects were last seen running out, east along an alley on the north side of the bank where they dropped the rifle. The suspects were described by witnesses as three black males, one wearing a red hat and red football jersey, a white fishnet shirt, and red tennis shoes.

There were four employees and two customers in bank at the time of the robbery. The suspects fled with an undisclosed amount of cash and according to authorities, no injuries have been reported.

Police have not made any arrest in connection with this crime.