For 13 years, a lean Oklahoman named Paul Cadwell languished in Los Angeles' Veterans Administration Hospital, prisoner of the epilepsy that got him bounced out of the Navy. His self-confidence shaken, Cadwell could not face returning to the outside world. Now Cadwell is not only out of the hospital but enjoying a normal life. He earns $1.70 an hour in a small Los Angeles plant, has married an ex-WAC from Texas, lives in a middle-class bungalow, bowls on weekends.
His rejuvenation is the work of a unique movement called Epi-Hab, short for "epileptic rehabilitation." Epi-Hab has opened four miniature factories in which...