Katy was a 3 year old girl with petit mal epilepsy and suspected mild mental handicap.

Epileptic automatisms are also associated "with the absence attacks of petit mal epilepsy."

Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy, also called impulsive petit mal epilepsy, is characterized by generalized seizures, usually tonic-clonic marked by jerky movements (called myoclonic jerks), and sometimes absence seizures.

Oral lorazepam, and other benzodiazepines, have a role in long-term prophylactic treatment of resistant forms of petit mal epilepsy, but not as first-line therapies, mainly because of the development of tolerance to their effects.

However, in 1952, because of a serious medical condition (petit mal epilepsy), which eventually was cured in 1959, he took some time off from seminary studies to teach in DeAndreis High School in north St. Louis.