“I couldn’t be happier - there isn’t a single day that goes by when I don’t think about how grateful I am for the doctors and how everything worked out.”
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Helps Man Achieve His Dream of Becoming a Police Officer
For as long as Alex Cella can remember, he was compelled to help people. It started as a collegiate soccer player that led him to coaching and mentoring others, then as a teacher’s assistant for students with disabilities, and later, taking steps to become a police officer so he could serve the community where he was born and raised.
Suddenly, a series of epileptic seizures threatened his dreams. He experienced several brief and small non-convulsive seizures followed by three more significant non-convulsive and convulsive seizures, preventing him from completing his police academy training. Alex embarked on a journey of multiple daily anti-seizure medications for years, and ultimately, successful epilepsy surgery at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital’s (RWJUH) New Brunswick Level IV Epilepsy Center. RWJUH is an RWJBarnabas Health facility.
After becoming seizure-free following a successful tailored right temporal lobe resective surgery, Alex was able to graduate from the police academy and begin his job with the Aberdeen Police Department in December of last year.
“Five years ago, I started having déjà vu feelings where I felt that I was experiencing the exact same thing at the exact same time,” Alex recalls. “I would sit down and gather myself and be fine. But I would lose two to three seconds each time.”
His neurologist, Megdad Zaatreh, MD, diagnosed him with epilepsy and managed it with medications, but Alex began to experience more severe seizures. In July 2021, he was coaching third base during a high school baseball game when he fell to the ground unconscious. He was taken by ambulance to a local hospital but was released.
“The doctors thought I passed out due to dehydration, but the mother of a player on my team who was also a nurse said, ‘I hate to tell you, but you had a seizure.’ She knew exactly what it was,” Alex explained.
After Alex experienced his third severe seizure, Dr. Zaatreh recommended that he be evaluated to see if epilepsy surgery could improve his seizures. He referred Alex to Ram Mani, MD, MSCE, Chief, Epilepsy and Medical Director of the Clinical Neurophysiology Lab at RWJUH and Associate Professor of Neurology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS).
Dr. Mani consulted with Hai Sun, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and Neurology at RWJMS and the Director of Epilepsy Surgery at RWJUH, to discuss treatment options with Alex. Options best for Alex included a laser ablation – a minimally invasive procedure that uses heat to ablate scar tissue, tumors or other abnormal areas of the brain causing the seizures, or open brain surgery to remove or disconnect those areas. Given the severity of his seizures and the potential to more precisely remove the diseased brain tissue responsible for the seizure generation. Alex chose open brain surgery.
“Alex’s previous doctor had tried four different medications and he still kept seizing,” Dr. Mani explained. “Two of the medications he tried were what we call our ‘big guns’ and are highly effective, but he still had seizures.”
Alex had his first procedure in May 2023. Surgeons entered his brain and implanted seven thin wire electrodes to monitor his brain activity more precisely than a regular scalp EEG. This procedure allows mapping the beginning and spread of Alex's electrical seizure signals. For this procedure, Alex was taken off all medications and remained in the hospital for eight days while the epilepsy team led by Dr. Mani recorded his brain activity.
Dr. Sun added, “We were able to watch him seize and record the brain waves, which gave us high confidence of where the seizures were coming from (in his brain).”
Both Dr. Mani and Dr. Sun noted that Alex benefited from having his procedure performed at a Level 4-accredited NAEC (National Association of Epilepsy Centers) Epilepsy Treatment Center like RWJUH. Level 4 centers (the highest level of accreditation) have highly skilled and experienced multidisciplinary teams that can address complex cases like Alex’s. The RWJUH and RWJMS team includes epileptologists, subspecialty neurosurgeons, neuropsychologists, neuroradiologists, neuropathologists, electroencephalogram EEG technicians, nurses, and more.
Doctors identified a focal cortical dysplasia (a malformation of the brain’s outermost layer) on the right side of Alex’s brain as the cause of his seizures. Dr. Sun performed open brain surgery in July 2023 to remove this abnormal tissue. Alex has remained seizure-free since the surgery.
Thanks to his successful surgery, Alex graduated from the police academy on December 11, 2024. He began his new job as an Aberdeen Police Officer five days after that. He hopes to continue teaching in his new position, this time as a LEAD (Law Enforcement Against Drugs) officer for the school district.
“I couldn’t be happier - there isn’t a single day that goes by when I don’t think about how grateful I am for the doctors and how everything worked out,” Alex said of Drs. Mani and Sun. “I’m also beyond thankful for the support I have received from my mom, dad, brother and extended family. I wouldn’t be where I am today without them.”
By sharing his story, Alex hopes to encourage others to keep pursuing their dreams no matter what obstacles they may face.
“My advice is to not give up on anything. I admit I was down when the medications weren’t stopping all the seizures for good and I had to leave the police academy,” Alex explained. “But I want young kids and even adults to know that if you have a dream like I did, whatever it is – whether you want to be a police officer, athlete, teacher or truck driver, you need to have faith in yourself, your doctors and God.”
More information about epilepsy treatment at RWJUH and RWJMS.