Mistakes potentially dangerous when trying to help an epileptic

November 25, 1999
Web posted at: 3:16 PM EST (2016 GMT)

In this story: The disorder When a seizure happens RELATEDS

By Lynda Liu

(WebMD) -- During a game against the San Diego Padres last June, Houston Astros manager Larry Dierker collapsed in the dugout. The cause was a tonic-clonic, or grand mal, seizure, in which the body first stiffens, then convulses.

Concerned players and coaches rushed to his side and in a misguided attempt to help, tried to restrain his writhing body: one of the common and potentially damaging mistakes people make when trying to help a person having a seizure.

Misunderstandings about how to react to seizures are frequent. That's one reason the Epilepsy Foundation of America has made the theme of this year's Epilepsy Awareness Month -- the month of November -- "Be Seizure Smart." While seizures are not uncommon -- one in 10 people have at least one in their lifetimes -- most people have mistaken ideas, or no ideas at all, about what do to.

"When you talk to most people, they've seen a seizure at some point in their life but have not been prepared for it," said Steven Schachter, M.D., chair of the professional advisory board of the Epilepsy Foundation and associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. "We're all prepared to deal with a person in a restaurant choking on food, and we're prepared to administer CPR, and I think we need to be prepared to come to the aid of a person having a seizure, because it could be a matter of life or death."

The disorder

Epilepsy is an umbrella term for a group of neurological conditions that lead to seizures. More than 2 million people in the United States have epilepsy, and 180,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. The disorder is most common in children and the elderly.

"Epilepsy is a medical disorder, not a psychiatric one," said Heidi Siegel, M.D., assistant professor of neurology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. "We don't know exactly what sets it off. Often there are brain cells that are very excited and can set off a chain of events which cause the behaviors we see during a seizure."

In the past, fear and a lack of understanding about the disorder resulted in people being put in asylums or banished to epileptic colonies. Great falsehoods about epilepsy were also perpetuated: that people with the condition are mentally ill or possessed by spirits, that others can catch the disease from them, and perhaps most damaging, that they cannot lead normal lives. "The vast majority of people who have epilepsy hold down jobs and carry out normal activities," said Siegel. "There isn't a lot that they can't do."

Most people with epilepsy take medication once or twice a day. Those on medication who still have at least two seizures each month -- a condition called intractable epilepsy -- can opt for surgical treatments as well.

When a seizure happens

The biggest myth about what to do when someone has a seizure is probably that a bystander should put a spoon in the person's mouth. But not only is it physically impossible to swallow one's tongue, the spoon could actually end up obstructing the person's airway, said Siegel. It could also damage his teeth.

Another mistake bystanders make is to restrain the person who's having a seizure. "There's a tendency to grab the person and prevent the movement," said Schachter. But doing so can lead to muscle strains and even dislocated and broken bones.

Here's what you should do if you see someone having a seizure:

RELATEDS AT :

Epilepsy
Epilepsy: Taming the seizures

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RELATED SITE:

Epilepsy Foundation of America

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