Status Epilepticus is a serious condition where an individual can seize constantly for a period in excess of 30 minutes. Yet, brain damage (ok, increased brain damage) can occur after 3-5 minutes.
Seizures, in and of themselves, are caused due to "electrical storms" within the brain. Yet, prolonged seizures can cause serious life-altering problems. When a person has a seizure, a part of the brain has an electrical overload, which can sometimes be witnessed in spastic, jerking movements. Those can be witnessed in most "grand mal" type seizures.
Grand mal seizures are, in my opinion, the worst thing a person could have to deal with. Personally, I despise grand mal seizures. They wear me out.
Yet, a component of Grand mal seizures is the *scary* and very real possibility that that very seizure will never end.
When I was much younger, I had two such type seizures. They each lasted longer than 5 minutes. But, remember, I said that status epilepticus seizures could last, in excess of 30 minutes. You can be almost guaranteed that severe brain damage will have occurred in someone who's seizure lasts that long. Time to call the electrical repair crew and get them to re-route around the damaged area of the brain. Now, we all know that there are *no such people* in real life, that can "re-route" damaged areas of the brain. What I'm getting at; is that another part of the brain will have to be "trained" to take over the duties of the damaged area. The people who "train the brain", so to speak, are called Occupational, Speech and Physical therapist. These three people work very hard to make sure the individual that came to see them is able to get back to "some sense of normal". Now, that "new normal" may be quite different from *before*. That happens. This is were a phenomenal support network of family and friends comes into play.
Luckily, none of my seizures caused *real* long term damage... ok, that I'm aware of.
Can death occur; in a patient who has gone in to status epilepticus; sadly, yes. Which is why I recommend that if you observe... or you; are having the seizure that lasts longer than 3-5 minutes, emergency personnel should have already been called. The reason emergency personnel need to be called is that during a seizure, sometimes the individual may stop breathing. Now, I do *NOT* recommend that you start mouth to mouth; in that instance. Yet, by making sure that the individual is laying on their side and their head is protected from hitting any hard objects (or the ground), the individual *should* be relatively safe. Emergency personnel can administer oxygen via a nasal cannula or an NC or even a face mask. Emergency personnel can also administer drugs that can sedate the individual. Yet, caution should be used. Some individuals may be "immune" to the drugs Emergency personnel use, due to *over use* on the individual. If someone is around who knows the patients history, that is most helpful. Yet, if they are out on their own and can not speak for themselves, caution is warranted.
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