When Seizure Happens

The scariest moment of my life happened on that night of January 4.

At around 1230am, barely two hours after I dozed off to sleep, I heard a loud cry from my little boy. We still co-sleep with our children and when I sense my kids suddenly wake up in the middle of the night I just let them hear my voice, touch their backs and they go back to sleep.

When I heard Sam cried, I immediately comforted him but before I could finish ‘Mommy’s here Sam’ I was surprised that he already stopped crying. That puzzled me because he would usually turn to me and hug me until he’s asleep again so I got into a sitting position and checked if he really dozed off. I was surprised that his eyes were somehow looking up and he didn’t turn to me. All these were happening in the dark but my mother’s instinct knew that something’s amiss.I waited for a second or two if he would just close his eyes but they remained staring at the wall on his head.

And then everything was chaos.

I immediately woke my husband up and when he opened the lights, there lay my son. His body has stiffened - arms up in an L position, fists closed tight, his eyes were dilirious. He was having a seizure! In the first few seconds, I saw that he was still trying to move his mouth maybe trying to speak or trying to fight it off but his body was too rigid.

It was a totally out of body experience for husband and I. Everything was a blur but I knew that I had to keep my wits and my calm. My husband was in some sort of panic and he was holding on to our dear son and told me to wake up the helper and pack the bags. As I was grabbing things to bring to the hospital, Sam’s body suddenly went limp and I rushed to him again while my husband tried to wake him up. This moment I was silently praying for a miracle from God, to please make him wake up. Barely 10 seconds after, my little boy suddenly made a loud restrained cry. He was having chills but thank goodness he’s awake. I resumed to packing our bags, made sure all his health cards, milk and extra clothings were there.

In the ER, the doctor immediately attended to him and said that he registered a 38 C fever. We were directed to one of the ER’s bed, answered some questions like if there may be head injury prior to the seizure, how long the seizure lasted, any case of vomiting, if my son turned blue,etc. In some cases, kids with seizure lose air and turn blue. Scary right? After the Q &A the attending physician called Sam’s doctor and got orders to confine our little boy and conduct some tests. We had to stay overnight for monitoring as seizure may recur within 24-48 hrs after the first attack. He was put on IV therapy and was brought to our room. His only medication is a round-the-clock Paracetamol administered by the nurses for 24 hours and nasal spray.

That night as I layed on the hospital bed with Sam, I realized… that was the most traumatic experience of my life! I stayed up for hours just watched my little boy sleep and prayed that there will be no more second attack. Please, I don't think I can bear that sight anymore. Like a broken record, the haunting scene kept playing back in my head. As I write this, a week after the incident, I still wake up in the middle of the night and check on Sam. Touch him if he’s even slightly hot or if he’s breathing properly. 

That morning, urine test and CBC test results came out clean so the doctor said the fever and seizure are caused by viral infection. Meningitis was ruled out also as my son manifested normal active behavior even after the attack. I found out also that febrile seizure may likely to happen to a child who has a family background of 

What happened to Sam is a case of febrile seizure which is common to children from 6 months to 5 years old. Apparently, children his age may experience this attack even if the fever isn't really high. To know more about febrile seizure, I'm sharing these sites to you: http://www.medicinenet.com/febrile_seizures/article.htm ; http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/febrile-seizure/DS00346/DSECTION=symptoms ; http://www.uptodate.com/contents/patient-information-febrile-seizures. These sites helped me during those questioning time. 

To all our friends and families who prayed and wished our little boy well, thank you very much. It was very comforting to know so many people love and care for him. He is back to his old witty makulit self.