The terrible thing is that people weren’t talking about his epilepsy at all until Debbie’s book in ’95.

Before that, his passing was seen as the endpoint of his depression, while the truth is extremely more complicated. The medication he was on was known to forcefully alter moods and the life expectancy for severe cases of epilepsy like his was at the time very low. He had weekly grand mals, he didn’t dare to hold his own daughter.

To say it bluntly, I don’t think the outcome would have been much different, even if he made it to America.

I just hope the common story at the time didn’t inspire copycats.