Today is World Epilepsy Day and Epilepsy Ireland is hoping to spread awareness on what to do when you encounter someone who is experiencing an epileptic seizure.
Speaking to Beat News, Paddy McGeoghegan of Epilepsy Ireland and epileptic patient Wayne O’ Reily stressed the importance of the ‘Time, Safe, Stay’ code when dealing with someone going through a seizure. Paddy described epilepsy as the tendency to have repeated seizures in the brain and likened it to a computer crashing.
Wayne then told Beat what it was like to experience a seizure, describing how your whole-body sweats in a panic and then you blackout. Once the episode is finished one feels like they have completed a marathon and can be bed-ridden for weeks. These seizures can occur at any time and can last for any time between a few minutes for several hours.
Diagnosed at 23, Wayne became another one of 40,000 Irish people with the condition and was also was forced to hand in his driver’s license. Since then, the longest Wayne has gone without experiencing a seizure has been 8 months, but he told us that this number can fluctuate due to differing medications.
Paddy then explained that much of what we see in movies where someone may restrain or place something in the mouth of someone experiencing a seizure is the opposite of what one should do. Instead, they should follow the ‘Time, Safe, Stay’ procedure. They should first time the episode and anything over 5 minutes can be classed as a medical emergency. They should keep the patient away from any dangers and do not leave the patient as they can be extremely disorientated once the episode has passed.
Wayne and Paddy hope that these tips can help people in aiding those with epilepsy, as only 40% of Irish people know how to do so.
