I was really struck by this part, as it shows how even trained medical professionals can unnecessarily freak out when they see someone having a seizure:
One day during medical school, my classmates and I learned that one of the most well-liked doctors-in-training in the hospital had had a seizure while leading morning work rounds.
The sight of him writhing had caused the other doctors and nurses on the ward to panic. Some stood mute, frozen with fear. An intern, believing that the seizure arose from low blood sugar levels, took his half-eaten jelly doughnut and held it against the mouth of his seizing colleague. Others yelled to the ward secretary to “call a code,” and continued to do so even after another dozen doctors and nurses had already arrived on the floor.
The young doctor eventually recovered. But for many of the medical students and doctors who heard about the episode or were on the wards that day, the dread of that morning would linger long beyond our years of training. Epilepsy was, and remains, a frightening and mysterious malady.
Time and again, I have seen this happen. People call ambulances unnecessarily. People risk the life of the person having a seizure by trying to put something in their mouth (to stop them ‘biting their tongue’). People risk injury to the person by trying to hold them down.
If you want to be one of the few people who don’t freak out when someone has a seizure and if you want to be genuinely helpful, read this brief page on first aid for epilepsy.
And if you have a couple more minutes, check out The New York Times piece on neurologist Brien Smith and his unique insight into the condition. Highly recommended.
Link to NYT piece on Brien Smith (via @mocost).
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