Overcoming 10 seizures a day • Wild Ferndale home hits market • Duggan moves to recoup Paratransit

TUESDAY NEWS HIT - Through patience and the power of science, an Oakland County man went from having 8-10 seizures a day to being nearly seizure-free. For Pete Varga, the past 15 years has been like riding a Ferris wheel with no way of getting off

"We didn't know what was going on," Pete Varga said.  "A lot of people don't understand."

From 2005 to 2020, that was life for Pete and Marisa Varga.

"My former doctor would just say, 'We're going to put you on meds and just adjust the medicine, adjust medicine and take a lot of tests, and if it doesn't work well put you on a new medicine,'" Pete said.

It was a life of runarounds and never-ending circles.

"Watching your loved one have a tonic colonic seizure the type you'd see in the movies it's really scary," Marisa said.

Pete had his first seizure in 2005 and as fate would have it. A whopping 15 years later, at the Beaumont Adult Comprehensive Epilepsy Clinic in Royal Oak, Pete learned his medication wasn't working. That meant it was time for doctors to get to work.

"With a robotic arm, the neurosurgeon was able to drill 18 holes in Pete's head, place the electrodes in his brain with assistance from the robotic arm, and Pete sat here for 14 days, so they could record all of the seizures he had at this time," Marisa said.

All 115 of them.

This painted a better picture of where to best implant some incredible technology.

"Neuro pace or responsive neuro simulation is like having a permanent EEG in your brain. It's constantly recording brain waves. We program it to recognize abnormal brain waves than from those abnormal brain waves we send little treatments/shocks to stop the seizures from starting or spreading," said Dr. Andy Zillgitt, the director of the epilepsy center at Beaumont.

This small device gives doctors at Corewell Health, formerly known as Beaumont, the data they needed to remove three parts of the left side of Pete's brain.

Following surgery, Pete has some memory and language processing issues but hasn't had a single seizure in three months.

It's giving Pete and Zillgitt hope for the future.

"There's about 4,000 people in the country with neuropace and it constantly recording abnormal and normal brain data, and what you can do with 4,000 people is start putting together big data, and once we put together that big data and look at patterns you see that seizures may not be as random as we once thought," Zillgitt said.

The never-ending journey finally reaches a destination, one with answers, confidence, and trust.

"We are so happy," Marisa said.

Duggan to use emergency powers to fund Detroit paratransit

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan plans to exercise emergency powers to help maintain paratransit options for disabled riders after the city council voted down a $49 million contract that would have funded the trips.

Duggan told media Monday that Detroit had been notified it was in violation of federal law by failing to fully fund the service. The contract that deadlocked in council last week accounted for 70% all ridership.

But according to citizens who spoke at the meeting, the provider Transdev often wasn't on time, disrupting ridership more than once. It's unlikely Detroit will be able to honor a new contract by the Jan. 1 deadline.

"I'm not going to let the disabled of this city be stranded on Jan. 1," Mayor Mike Duggan said. "I will be exercising emergency powers to put emergency contracts in place to protect our most vulnerable at risk. ... We'll take action in the next 48 hours."

– The Associated Press contributed to this report

Ferndale home with urinals in kitchen hits market

A home with a few unusual features recently hit the market in Ferndale. From the outside, the house on Burdette Street looks like a typical ranch. 

Step inside, however, and you're greeted by a few quirks – namely two urinals connected to a wet bar in the kitchen and a Jager tap in the shower. You can also put a TV in the shower, as it has a hookup for that. 

There's also a tap handle over the toilet, a basketball court in the backyard painted with the Detroit Lions logo, and a platform for stadium seating in the living room. The house ended up on the Zillow Gone Wild Facebook page, where it intrigued people and led to questions about why exactly someone would add urinals to the room where you eat. 

The three-bedroom home was listed by real estate agent Heidi N Wilson with Keller Williams Advantage. The asking price is $165,000. 

See the images here. 

Murder scene of 22-year-old Pontiac woman turns into candlelight vigil honoring her

The crime scene where a 22-year-old woman was killed, got transformed in her memory Monday night. With balloons and candles in hand, dozens of family and friends paid respect to 22-year-old Ikiyonna Goans.

"She has lots of friends that love her, and she didn’t have to go through this," said her mother, Martha Goans. "She should be burying me, not me burying her." 

A 911 call was made around 4:30 a.m. Sunday, the report of gunshots being fired in 300 block of Columbia in Pontiac. When deputies from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office arrived, they found her body lying on the sidewalk.  She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Ikiyonna’s family and friends trying as best they can to replace the awful details of the crime with candles, messages, and pictures of a bright and promising future. "Her dream was to be a teacher," her mother said. "She wanted to help the kids and be there for the kids. She’s great and smart." A suspect is still being sought in the investigation. 

Detroit cop found guilty of assaulting fellow officer

Three years after a veteran of the Detroit Police Department and Black officer accused a much younger white officer of racial profiling, a jury has found the defendant guilty of assault. Thomas Michael Joseph was convicted in a case that even chief James White admits he was wrong about.

"For him to work the street, what would he do to my grandmother, to my mother," Officer Christopher Williams said. "I hope he wouldn’t put them in cuffs for having money on them."

Williams was chased down and tackled by Joseph before forcefully handcuffing him at the department's training center. Jones said he saw Williams with a large amount of cash and suspected him of wrong-doing. White, who was an assistant chief at the time, initially believed the actions were not unreasonable.

He revised his beliefs, saying it was rooted in bad information. It led to DPD sending the case to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office. While Jones remains on the job, he's been off the streets and faces more disciplinary actions as well.

Live on FOX 2

Daily Forecast

Temperatures hit the 40s today with a chance for rain to the north. It will be a mostly-quiet week for Metro Detroit though a chance of snow is building out to the west. More on that in the coming days.

What else we're watching

1. Intrigue into how former House Speaker Lee Chatfield oversaw the Michigan House has bubbled since an investigation into his actions at the capital was launched last year. According to a report by the Detroit News, his relationship with lobbying groups was far cozier than previously reported.
2. Cockroaches found in a Detroit Popeyes restaurant were recorded on video recently. The video, posted by a DoorDash Driver at Detroit's east side at Conner and Warren, also led the health department to the location. It's since been closed and is working with a pest company.
3. Video of street racing in Detroit popped up over the weekend. Several vehicles can be seen doing donuts at the corner of Seven Mile and Greenfield in Detroit.
4. A Dearborn man was held on $1 million bond after flipping off a judge and making anti-semitic remarks in a case over ethnic intimidation. FOX 2 caught it live here.
5. MDHHS, THAW, United Way, and DTE are all teaming up this year to help those who can't afford heat in the winter - which is expected to be cold that usual. An announcement on the assistance is expected at 9 a.m.

Here are the 2022 winners of America's largest gingerbread competition

Nothing says the holiday season like a massive gingerbread house competition. The 30th annual National Gingerbread House Competition — billed as America’s largest — announced its winners and shared photos of the intricate, creative displays.

The competition included 219 gingerbread house entries across the adult, teen, youth, and child categories for a chance to win more than $40,000 in cash and prizes, a 60% increase to years past, organizers said. This year's judge panel evaluated each creation based on overall appearance, originality, creativity, difficulty, precision, and consistency of theme, with each entry required to be 75% gingerbread and 100% edible.

The 2022 Grand Prize Winner for the adult category was Ann Bailey from Cary, North Carolina, who created a gingerbread house called "When Dreams Have Wings."

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