Seizures on Campus

How do you recognize a seizure?

Some common signs of seizures are body shaking, convulsions, tremors, spasms, involuntary change in behavior, altered sense of awareness. Some types of seizures are:

• Atonic Seizure: The person may drop to the or or go slack in their chair due to sudden loss of muscle control. It can last a few seconds and they could lose consciousness.
• Complex partial seizure: The person will not be responsive, but appear conscious to others. The seizure may last for a few seconds or minutes and may include things such as moving lips, aimless wandering, grinding teeth, rubbing or dgeting with hands. Awareness maybe impaired.
  Simple partial seizure: The person is lucid and conscious of changes in how things feel, look or taste for a few seconds.
• Absence Seizure (Petit Mal): An Absence seizure can last a few seconds to a minute and may cause confusion as well as abnormal face or eye movements.
• Tonic-Clonic Seizure (Grand Mal): When people hear the term “seizure” this is the most common type known and what usually comes to mind. The body can become rigid, which is followed by a series of convulsive movements in which the body can jerk for 2 to 3 minutes. A person can lose consciousness or awareness during these seizures.

Once medical personnel has been alerted, here are some steps you can take to assist:

• Do not put anything in the student’s mouth.
• Clear the area of items that the person may hit their head or limbs on.
• If possible, place something soft under the person’s head.
• Other medical emergency — Please only respond to your level of medical training until emergency medical personnel arrive.

After the seizure

• The student should be placed on their side.
• Place the student in recovery position (see image). Make sure that their head is turned downward to prevent aspiration and choking on uids.
• People can be embarrassed or confused about what happened, keep this in mind as they wake up or become more alert.
• Depending on the severity and the persons’ familiarity with their condition, the person may decline medical attention and feel able to resume their activities. It is important to respect this decision and to be supportive.
• You want to let them know they are safe and have had a seizure if they are confused.
• Stay with the person until medical personnel arrive.

Words of caution

• Do not try to hold the student down during the seizure.
• Do not put anything in the student’s mouth.
• Do not give the student food, water, or pills until he or she is fully awake.