First aid for seizures involves responding in ways that can keep the person safe until the seizure stops by itself. Here are a few things you can do to help someone who is having a generalized tonic-clonic (grand mal) seizure: - Keep calm and reassure other people who may be nearby. - Prevent injury by clearing the area around the person of anything hard or sharp. - Ease the person to the floor and put something soft and flat, like a folded jacket, under his head. - Remove eyeglasses and loosen ties or anything around the neck that may make breathing difficult. - Time the seizure with your watch. If the seizure continues for longer than five minutes without signs of slowing down or if a person has trouble breathing afterwards, appears to be injured, in pain, or recovery is unusual in some way, call 911. - Do not hold the person down or try to stop his movements. - Contrary to popular belief, it is not true that a person having a seizure can swallow his tongue. Do not put anything in the person’s mouth. Efforts to hold the tongue down can injure the teeth or jaw. - Turn the person gently onto one side. This will help keep the airway clear. - Dont attempt artificial respiration except in the unlikely event that a person does not start breathing again after the seizure has stopped. - Stay with the person until the seizure ends naturally and he is fully awake. - Do not offer the person water or food until fully alert -Be friendly and reassuring as consciousness returns. Offer to call a taxi, friend or relative to help the person get home if he seems confused or unable to get home without help. Here are a few things you can do to help someone who is having a seizure that appears as blank staring, loss of awareness, and/or involuntary blinking, chewing, or other facial movements. - Stay calm and speak reassuringly. - Guide him away from dangers. - Block access to hazards, but don’t restrain the person. - If he is agitated, stay a distance away, but close enough to protect him until full awareness has returned. Consider a seizure an emergency and call 911 if any of the following occurs: - The seizure lasts longer than five minutes without signs of slowing down or if a person has trouble breathing afterwards, appears to be in pain or recovery is unusual in some way. - The person has another seizure soon after the first one. - The person cannot be awakened after the seizure activity has stopped. - The person became injured during the seizure. - The person becomes aggressive. -The seizure occurs in water. - The person has a health condition like diabetes or heart disease or is pregnant.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 22:59:24 +0000
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