Josh Clemens grew up a normal kid just like any other; he loved playing baseball, hanging out with friends, and especially enjoyed skateboarding at skate parks. 

But then something odd started to occur. For reasons unknown at the time, he started passing out unconscious, and falling to the floor foaming at the mouth with uncontrollable convulsions.

"This wasn't living," Clemens said.

 Clemens suffered these grand mal seizures (the worst type) for 11 years before finally being diagnosed with epilepsy in 2000.  Two short years later, he was having the major brain operation that would essentially rearrange his whole world.

But one thing stayed constant: his marriage.   

"If it wasn't for her, I don't think I could have ever made it," Clemens said of his wife Paula.

Paula Clemens stated that it was difficult, and it took a great deal of strength and patience to live with these many obstacles.    

"It was very scary and troublesome at times because I always had to watch out for him," Paula Clemens said. "Sometimes I would come in the room and he would be flip-flopping around like a fish out of the water."

Throughout their 13-year marriage, Paula 28, had to deal with many instances in which she feared for her husband's life, even having to restrain or nurse him until help would arrive. 

For at least 10 of the 13 years Josh Clemens was victim to the Grand Mal seizures making life bittersweet for his wife and young son, Noah.  At its worst point, the seizures were an almost every-weekend occurrence. 

When Clemens 31, of Sacramento was asked if he had any idea how the seizures could have started, he said it had to be when he was 15 years old and got hit in the head with a golf club accidentally.  The seizures began shortly after the incident, continuing until the final surgery.

On Feb. 7, 2002, a team of doctors at the UC Davis Medical Center, led by Dr. Edie Zusman performed a Temporal Lobectomy surgery. 

"The surgeons went in and scraped some stuff off the side of my brain where I was struck," Clemens said.  "I haven't had another seizure since."

If the temporal lobe is determined to be the cause of epileptic seizures, surgeons can remove portions of those lobes, located on either side of the head just above the ear. Success at controlling seizures is logged at 70 to 90 percent, according to the California Pacific Medical Center.

The surgery worked. May 31, 2003, was his last seizure to date, and he now attends American River College studying Journalism.

Clemens speaks of Dr. Zusman with great admiration and utmost respect, and says he still speaks to her at least once a year. Thanks to the efforts of U.C. Davis doctors, one astounding surgery, and true companionship, Clemens is finally free of seizures and lives life independently.

"They saved my life," Clemens said. "And Dr. Zusman helped pull my family and me through."