Karim’s Superhero Story

Karim is a SLC13A5 Superhero. Here are a few fun facts Karim’s family shared with us!

• Name: Karim
• Age: 12
• Home country: Lebanon
• Karim is fascinated with the mobile phone and what he can do with it (e.g. making group calls and sharing videos and pictures).
• Karim likes to watch TikTok videos about dancing, karate , gym exercises , exotic fruits, and more! He also loves watching SpongeBob SquarePants, Superman, and Batman cartoons.
• He takes selfies and videos of himself all the time and edits them to include background music and other modifications. He typically mimics the videos he sees on YouTube and TikTok.
• He likes to go to the hairdresser every week to cut his hair. Recently he was upset because the hairdresser told him to come after 2 weeks because his hair is too short!
• He also likes to peel garlic and hand cut fresh vegetables. He likes visiting farms and harvesting fruits on trees.

Karim’s Medical Journey

Karim was born on January 1, 2011, along with his brother Akram. Shortly after birth, Karim started having seizures. Karim and Akram’s two other siblings also suffered from seizures but the cause of them had not yet been determined. Akram did not suffer from seizures but had his own medical struggles that led to lots of testing, which ultimately provided him with a diagnosis that was not related to SLC13A5 Epilepsy. However, through this extensive medical testing, it was determined that Karim and one of his other siblings had SLC13A5 genetic mutations.

Karim currently attends a school for kids with disabilities where he receives speech and psychomotor therapy. In terms of physical movement, Karim can walk and use stairs on his own. Karim currently struggles with recurrent arm or body jerks and this continues to be his daily challenge as it impacts his ability to feed himself or to do tasks that require stable hands.