The collaboration of Francis Forster and Wilder Penfield in the management of a girl with ‘reflex epilepsy’

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the era after World War II, Francis (Frank) Forster (1912–2006) became a preeminent American neurologist and epileptologist, with international prominence in the study of reflex epilepsy. Forster’s interest in reflex epilepsy began with a chance observation of the condition, in 1946, in a four-year-old girl. When medical measures failed to control her somatosensory-evoked seizures, Forster recommended surgery, and then facilitated transfer to Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield (1891–1976) at the Montreal Neurological Institute. Forster traveled to Montreal for the child’s surgery. The surgery on February 27, 1948, proved to be curative for the child, and Forster’s interactions with Penfield and epileptologist Herbert Jasper (1906–1999) made a lasting impression. This study reviews the medical and surgical history of this case, which strongly influenced Forster’s career.