SCIENTIST DON WILEY MAY HAVE HAD SEIZURE

The Commercial Appeal ^ | 1/15/02 | Thomas Jordan

[GailA]

This explanation makes more sense than what has been written so far.

[YaYa123]

Well, if you try long enough, you can eventually come up with an explanation that won't be laughed off the front pages.

[OldFriend]

Major seizures and the man is driving..........thanks for endangering the lives of untold others.

[Catspaw]

My brother-in-law's seizure disorder didn't show up until his mid-40's. Unfortunately, he was going about 50 mph down a county trunk road, barrelled through a cow pasture and rolled his company car when he had his first seizure. Amazingly--because of his seat belt and an air bag--he walked away from the accident, bruised and shaken. But at least he got treatment. Even so, he's had two more minor seizures--early on, when they were fiddling with his meds--but he's been seizure-free for the past decade.

[corkoman]

good point

[Rain-maker]

Hmmm...public doesn't buy the first BS "he fell" story. so the spindoctor comes in da house!

Stay tuned for next week, when the good doctor was actually targeted by renegade Quakers with a silkworm missle.

[Catspaw]

Major seizures and the man is driving..........thanks for endangering the lives of untold others.

If he'd reported any seizures, they'd pull his driver's license. My brother-in-law couldn't drive until he was seizure-free for 30 days after the first seizure, 90 days after the second.

You'd be amazed at how many people with major medical problems are behind the wheel.

[Ditter]

Thats what I was thinking. If this man has 2-3 major seizures a year & refuses medication, he should have a driver. Fortunatly he killed no one but himself.

[Rudder]

Since no one has reported seeing this incident, there is absolutely no evidence that he had been pushed off the bridge. Therefore, the only conclusion supported by the evidence is that he fell. Of course this conclusion may not be factually accurate, but it's good enough for government officials. Case closed.

[uvular]

FYI

What the heck does 12d and 43b mean?

Has it been verified there were construction signs on the bridge that night? Did the medical examiner release this information via the press conference he promised, or was it found out through phone calls?

[OldFriend]

Wonder if the man's family and friends thinks their deception was worth his life!

[uvular]

Two other stories on this today on tennessean.com and boston.com.

As someone else mentioned, why would a guy afraid of heights and with a history of seizures get out of a car on a bridge? Why would he care if there was damage; it was a rented car.

These other stories also stae 2 lanes of traffic were closed due to construction, and investigators believe he was probably confused by the large amount of construction in the area and took a wrong turn on the highway...

[pttttt]

Smith said Wiley, 57, had suffered from "an infrequent and poorly understood seizure disorder" for years. He said Wiley kept the condition private and wasn't being treated for it.

Thanks for the interesting article. It does raise some questions. Why isn't this "seizure disorder" (which sounds, bogusly, like a quirky 19th century made-up disease name like conniption fits) called "epilepsy"? Perceived social stigma? I'm by no means a medical expert, but I thought epilepsy was so treatable that people with it could lead unrestricted lives, so this guy wouldn't have had to surrender his driver's license (which may have motivated the secrecy, risking the lives of everyone he shared the road with) if he'd fessed up and gotten treatment. Or are there other kinds of "seizure disorders"? There can also be a number of possible causes of seizures, including brain trauma and concussion, brain tumors, and strokes. They aren't usually called "seizure disorders".

And seizures came on when he got tired. That's scary, knowing he habitually drove long distances. How many more are out there. This guy was kind of a terrorist himself, if this story is true.

[Cachelot]

why would a guy afraid of heights and with a history of seizures

Maybe it was a seizure. Maybe someone seized his ancles and applied a brisk lift. You gotta learn to parse these things, you know :).

[uvular]

HaHa! Excellent parsing! I'd believe your version before this one.

Why would the fact he was afraid of heights made public knowledge right off the bat, but they keep the secret of 'seizure disorders' until now?

If true, this man had no dang business driving. Of course, when a deaf woman slammed into the back of our truck, I thought the same thing about her....

[YaYa123]

Better for insurance payoff too.

It's just funny that until now, we heard nary a snippet about this man having blackouts. Guess he could have eaten a pretzel.

Or maybe Billie Joe McAllister was throwing something else off a bridge?

I'm not a tin foil hatter, but it's amusing to chronicle an event like this. . And by the way, did anyone ever say why he was going to (or coming back from) West Memphis?

[Rudder]

did anyone ever say why he was going to (or coming back from) West Memphis?

Uh, because it was there?

I don't know, but if we wait a while this, too, will be "explained."

[Mitchell]

What the heck does 12d and 43b mean?

Probably 12' and 43". I would guess that these were originally single-quotes and double-quotes in an extended character set, as abbreviations for feet and inches. These symbols aren't portable, so they were changed to words during editing, but somebody forgot to delete the symbols, and they got changed at some point (lost their high bit in a file transfer or some such thing).

[uvular]

Per Boston Globe: "Wiley was supposed to return that night to his father's home in a suburb of Memphis in the opposite direction he was headed. Investigators believe be was probably confused by the large amount of construction in the area and that he took a wrong turn on the highway."

1. Typos and lousy content courtesy of the Boston Globe, not me.

2. Wasn't Memphis his home town? You'd think he'd know which way to go to get to dad's. And most dads would have jumped (sorry) at the chance to give him detours and/or alerted him to the construction going on.

[GailA]

No, telling, I fear heights, and HATE to drive over long spanned bridges get this weird sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, BUT do it because I must to arrive at where I am going.