Kern Medical in east Bakersfield has teamed up with the University of Southern California to open the Valley’s first epilepsy monitoring unit.

Patients at the clinic will be hooked up to a new million-dollar machine that triggers seizures, then put on a treatment plan once doctors figure out what causes them. Chief Strategy Officer Scott Thygerson believes this will be especially helpful for 33,000 local patients, who previously had to take a two-hour drive to Los Angeles for care.

A third of all epilepsy patients in Kern County have a severe seizures.

Kelli Pierce