Epilespy Awareness – Can Epilepsy be life threatening?
Can Epilepsy Be Life-threatening?
Epilepsy can be dangerous, even life-threatening. One such time is during status epilepticus. This is a very serious situation in which a person has prolonged seizures or does not fully regain consciousness between multiple seizures.
Some doctors define status epilepticus as a seizure that lasts for more than five minutes. More conservative doctors define the condition as a seizure lasting 10 or even 30 minutes. Without emergency attention, this condition can cause permanent brain damage or be fatal.
This condition is one of the reasons that it is very important to regularly take your Epilepsy medication or if you are the caregiver to a child with Epilepsy, to insure that your child takes their medication.
- About a third of status epilepticus events are triggered when a person stops taking antiepileptic medication.
- Status epilepticus can by triggered by sudden withdrawal of certain antiepileptic drugs.
- About a third of the time, it is the first sign of a seizure disorder. It can also follow stroke, poisoning, high fever, or low blood sugar in people with diabetes.
Status epilepticus affects over 100,000 people in the United States each year and causes about 50,000 deaths.
If you are a witness to a seizure event that last more than 5 minutes OR the person has multiple seizures without regaining consciousness. This is an emergency situation and you need to call 911!
For more information about living with Epilepsy please visit the Epilepsy Foundation Website.
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3 Responses to “Epilespy Awareness – Can Epilepsy be life threatening?”
[...] Epilepsy Awareness – An awareness post on when Epilepsy can be life threatening. [...]
I have a 11yr old daughter with Epilepsy, and Delayed Development Problem. My daughter is on her max dose of Epilepsy meds, and still having bad seizure’s. Her younger sister has a different dad, but has been with Meagan since birth, and both are very close, now the youngest daughter’s father is do whatever he can to get custody, and split the two up. I’ve tried to tell him that this will greatly effect Meagan with serious results, maybe even death because of her medical problem’s, and how close the two are. I also tried to explain this to the lawyer’s, and the accessors, but nobody seems to be taking Meagan’s Epilepsy, and how serious it is into effect, and every time that we go to court she thinks that her sister is going to be taken away, all the stress of this matter has made the Epilepsy way worse, and Meagan is having more, and more seizure’s. I’m so afraid that they will keep not listening to me, and Meagan could suffer brain damage, and maybe even death. The Dr say’s her med’s can not be put up anymore, and they even send he to child mental health in hopes it would help deal with the stress, and the fear that this case is putting on her, but nothing is working yet.
I don’t know what else to do, I’m afraid that the law may end up killing my daughter, and they don’t seem to care at all about it, or understand. I feel so lost, and helpless.
Oh Aimee – I am so sorry to hear that you and your family are going through this ordeal! I know it’s difficult but staying calm and keeping Meagan calm is so important especially in the middle of such stressful times.